A small book, smaller than a playing card and containing 10 tempting unpublished poems, she returned home to the West Yorkshire Pastor’s Home, where she was lovingly written in 1829 by 13-year-old Charlotte Bronte.
Considered lost, it was bought in New York for $ 1.25 million (£ 1 million) according to Haworth, and given that it measures only 10 by 6 centimeters, probably centimeter by centimeter, it is the most the valuable literary manuscript ever sold.
Its artistic value is also through the roof. “It’s really phenomenal,” said Anne Dinsdale, chief curator of the pastor’s museum in Bronte. “I can not believe. I still haven’t been able to accept everything. “
The manuscript is one of the “little books” written when Charlotte and her siblings Emily, Ann and Branwell were children. Often written for Branwell’s toy soldiers, the manuscripts shed light on how creative and astonishingly talented the four were.
Drawing by Charlotte Bronte by George Richmond. Photo: Apic / Getty Images
Titled The Book of Richmes [sic] by Charlotte Bronte, sold by no one and printed by herself ”is a collection of 10 poems she wrote at the age of 13.
“She is known for her novels, but initially Charlotte wanted to be a poet,” Dinsdale said. “We know that she sent samples of her poetry to the laureate poet and she told him about her ambition to be a poet, which is a lot.
The laureate poet was Robert Southy, who shamefully advised her not to pursue a literary career. “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life: and it should not be,” he wrote.
The titles of the poems are known to experts and are far from the isolated pastoral home and the winds of Yorkshire. These include “Seeing the Ruins of the Tower of Babel”, “Songs of an Exile” and “Meditations While Traveling in a Canadian Forest”.
Surprisingly, the poems themselves have never been published, photographed, transcribed or even summarized.
A Book of Ryhmes is the latest of more than two dozen miniature books created by Charlotte that remain in private hands. It was last seen at auction in New York in 1916, where it sold for $ 520. He then disappeared with his whereabouts or survival, hitherto unknown.
When it turned out that the book would be the star of the International Antiques Fair in New York last weekend, the leading charity for literary heritage in the UK.
Friends of National Libraries (FNL) was founded in 1931 to help save the written and printed history of the United Kingdom. One of his biggest successes last year was to raise £ 15 million to save the Honsfield Library, an unprecedented treasure trove of literary heritage and wonders, which includes a letter in which Jane Austen awaits the end of a love affair.
FNL chairman Jordi Greig said they only had two weeks to raise money to buy the book, which was a difficult task.
Pastor Bronte in Haworth. Photo: Rob Ford / Alami
“Saving Charlotte Bronte’s little book is a huge gain for Britain,” he said. “The return of this literary treasure to Pastor Bronte, where it was written, is important for scholars, as well as for students studying one of our greatest writers.”
Among the benefactors who donated money to buy the book were the Elliott mansion and the Garfield Weston Foundation.
The manuscript was donated to the Bronte Society, whose museum in Haworth has the largest collection of Bronte manuscripts in the world. There are already nine small books, which will soon be joined by seven more from the Honsfield Library.
Dinsdale said all four Brontes probably made small books or magazines when they were children, although no one survived Anne or Emily.
The four brothers and sisters created an exquisite imaginary world with a nation called England and a city called Glass City, filled with childhood characters. From there come some of the greatest novels, no more than Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Storm Hills.
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Dinsdale said it was absolutely exciting to receive such an “extraordinary and unexpected” donation.
“It’s always emotional when an item belonging to the Bronte family is returned home, and this last little book, which goes back to where it was written when it was considered lost, is very special to us.
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