The letter that came from the US

More than a year ago, in January 2007, we were contacted by Patti Engels about a Charlotte Brontë letter that was in her possession. Apparently her grandmother was a member of the Brontë Society and acquired it in the 1920s. It was a letter from Charlotte Brontë to W.S. Williams from 13th January 1848, that was indeed known (it appears in Margaret Smith's Letters) but the location of the manuscript was not known.

After some exchange of emails and scans (which you can enlarge clicking on them), we were convinced that there was a fair chance that the letter was really authentic. Therefore we put her in contact with the Brontë Society. The rest of the story can be read on this press release from the Brontë Society:

Missing Charlotte Brontë letter returns to Haworth after spending over 80 years in USA

Over 4000 miles away from where it was first written, an important Charlotte Brontë letter to her publisher William Smith Williams has been bought by the Brontë Parsonage Museum with financial help from a grant given by the MLA and V&A Purchase Grant Fund. The letter will be on display at the Parsonage this weekend.

Written at a significant point in her life, the letter, signed in the pseudonym ‘C. Bell’, discusses reviews of her recently published novel Jane Eyre and also makes reference to the second edition of the world famous novel.

Collections Manager Ann Dinsdale said “Charlotte’s correspondence with her publisher is particularly important and interesting. It gives us a deeper insight into her creativity, her influences and her ideas”.

Originally written in Haworth just three months after the first publication of Jane Eyre on the 13th January 1848, the letter was purchased over seventy years later by an American Brontë Society member visiting England and it was brought back with her on her return to the USA. It was eventually inherited by Patti Engels of California who sold it to the Brontë Parsonage Museum just a few weeks ago. For most of it's time in the USA, the whereabouts of the letter remained unknown.

This interesting and exciting new addition to our collection will be on display at The Brontë Parsonage Museum from 28th August 2008 onwards.

EDIT:
The Telegraph & Argus and the Brontë Parsonage Blog publish the press release and the following comment by Ann Dinsdale and some pictures (source. Sarah Laycock inspects Charlotte’s letter )

Mrs Dinsdale said: “She was keen that it should come back to Haworth and not be sold in America. We were very excited and the Bronte Society decided we should have it.
“It has now come back home to the place where it was written all those years ago. Her letters to Mr Williams are interesting. In this she has written just after Jane Eyre was published and he has sent her some reviews on which she comments.”
Charlotte writes: “You have just culled the best sentences in each review, as if you have been gathering flowers in a parterre, rejecting which is superfluous and unsightly like weeds…….”
Mrs Dinsdale said: “Charlotte wrote a lot to Williams. He was the first person to spot her potential as a novelist. After the loss of her sisters, she came to rely on his letters.”
It will now join the 100 other letters in the Bronte collection written by Charlotte.(Clive White)

Categories: Brontëana, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Charlotte Brontë, Messages from BB