How the Colonel Sanders found Jane Eyre among his potatoes

The Telegraph & Argus publishes the following story which is tangentially related to the Brontës:
Picture Source: Ann Dinsdale with Dave Foster and a work of art by his grandfather, Walter Foster.

Brontë expert Ann Dinsdale came to the rescue of Dave Foster to help identify the location of one of the paintings by his grandfather, Walter Foster.
Mr Foster, who is researching the history of the Aireville Group of artists at the turn of the 20th century, has had a number of his grandfather’s works of art turned into prints. Among them are seven of the Bronte country by Walter which are for sale at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
“I was actually under the impression that one was located between Druids and Thwaites Brow near Keighley. But Ann put me right. She recognised it straight away,” said Mr Foster.
Mrs Dinsdale, Bronte Parsonage Museum collections manager, said: “I know it as Rush Isle which overlooks Ponden reservoir and is still there but derelict.”
Walter Foster, who died aged 42 in 1929, was head of Salts School of Art in Saltaire and a graduate of the Royal College of Art.
The Aireville Group worked between 1890 and 1940 and included Augustus Spencer, of Silsden, who became Principal of the Royal College of Art.

The Sudbury Times reviews the latest novel by Azar Nafisi, Things I've Been Silent About and a mention to her previous one is mandatory:

In Reading Lolita in Tehran, Nafisi offered a colourful account of eight female friends who threw off the veils demanded by the fundamentalist regime, to discuss Western literature in a private home. It was a daring enterprise, one open to punishment if discovered and Nafisi described, in engaging detail, how Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Henry James and Vladimir Nabokov allowed her and her students to retain "a firm belief in the portable world of the imagination, and the subversive power of literature, a belief that it is possible, through fiction, to turn anguish into a thing of enduring beauty.'' (Nancy Schiefer)

The Daily Herald (Everett, WA) talks about the popularity of graphic novels among teenagers. The article ends like this:

Mukilteo teen librarian Kathleen Fernandes said in quality graphic novels, it's intellectually more challenging than parents realize."
She's eagerly awaiting the arrival of Charlotte Bronte's 1847 classic "Jane Eyre" as a graphic novel. It's on order. (Eric Stevick)

We suppose she is referring to the Classical Comics adaptation of Jane Eyre, available in the US since last December.

The New York Times reviews Elaine Showalter's latest book, A Jury of Her Peers. American Women Writers From Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx:

In the 1970s, Showalter wrote “A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists From Brontë to Lessing,” which established an alternative canon of British women writers at a moment when feminist studies were very much in vogue, and her new book is an attempt to do the same thing for American literature. (Katie Roiphe)

Phong Bui interviews artist Lisa Yuskavage in The Brooklyn Rail and the interviewer makes the following statement:

But that’s the thing, I think one of the reasons why Balthus was never fully appreciated was partly because of the strong American puritanical view of sexuality. Very few care to know the reason why Balthus only illustrated the first half of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights for example.

Another artist discussed in an article in the news is Kiki Smith, who is compared to the Brontës:

Como las heroínas de Austen o las hermanas Brontë, Smith logra sacar el mejor partido de su reclusión doméstica. (Ángela Molina in El País) (Google translation)

Children literature author Jacqueline Wilson is interviewed in The Times:

She wasn't beautiful, rich or popular. Her father was prone to rages. Her diaries, faithfully reproduced, could be those of any mildly bookish teenager discovering the Brontës, film, and the “crass stupidity and insensitivity” of a teacher who shouted at a poor girl in her class who came to school in grubby bedroom slippers. (Amanda Craig)

Handbag celebrates the International Women's Day with a selection of inspiring women through the ages, Brontës included:

These three women produced some of the most influential, romantic and poetic literature of the Victorian era. Living in a rectory in Yorkshire with their distant father and alcoholic brother, they were isolated, lonely and suffered frequent bouts of ill health, yet produced a prolific amount of writing. Their works were published initially under the names Ellis (Emily), Currer (Charlotte) and Acton (Anne) Bell, due to the fact that it was considered unseemly at the time for women to write and publish books. Emily's Wuthering Heights and Charlotte's Jane Eyre remain as timeless classics. (EdAssistant3)

20 Minutos (Spain) also celebrates the day listing several women writers. We know the Brontës were not the most lively creatures in the world but they were not always hiding:

Hubo muchas escritoras que (...) se vieron obligadas a ocultar manuscritos.
Es el caso de la obra Jane Eyre, cuya autora, la británica Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), tenía que esconder entre las patatas que pelaba.
Ella y sus dos hermanas, Emily (1818-1849) y Anne (1820-1849), recurrieron a seudónimos de varón para poder publicar. Charlotte se escondió tras Currer Bell y sus hermanas adoptaron el mismo apellido y alias que mantenían sus iniciales: Ellis (Emily) y Acton (Anne).
A pesar de sus esfuerzos por disfrazar su autoría, las editoriales rechazaban, como si pudieran adivinar la mano que tras las firmas se escondía, sus textos. Persistieron, y en 1846 salían los Poemas de Currer, Ellis y Acton Bell.
Al año siguiente Cumbres borrascosas era aceptada, y Anne lograba también un buen camino para su Agnes Grey. Charlotte tuvo que aguantarse con el rechazo a El profesor, pero consiguió que Jane Eyre viera la luz. (Paula Arenas) (Google translation)

Hiding Jane Eyre's manuscript among the peeled potatoes? But how these so-called "journalists" can invent such stupidities?

Día Uno Digital (Argentina) also joins in the celebrations:

1847 Eyre divina: Firmando con su seudónimo literario, CURRER BELL, para que la tomaran en serio corno escritora, al igual que lo hicieron George Sand y George Eliot, la maestra de es-cuela inglesa CHARLOTTE BRONTÉ actualiza la historia de Cenicienta con su inspiradora Jane Eyre, en la cual una fuerte heroína no convencional triunfa a pesar de sü clase y su sexo... ¡y se queda con su hombre! (Google translation)

The Shropshire Star mentions several shootings made recently in the Peak District, including Jane Eyre 2006:

‘Visit Peak District & Derbyshire’ offers its visitors a Movie Map - focusing on Keira Knightley and The Duchess - to help visitors follow in the footsteps of the stars. It also highlights all of the other movies and TV productions, shot on location in and around the region in recent times - including BBC TV’s adaptation of Jane Eyre, the award-winning Pride & Prejudice, and The Other Boleyn Girl.

The British soap opera Coronation Street is praised in this article in the Carlisle News & Star, Wuthering Heights reference included:

Ken’s a snob with nothing to be stuck-up about. His principles are dubious, his questionable morals are justified by the romance he’s learned from Wuthering Heights and he justifies his unhappy indiscretions by always playing away with a Salford version of Lady Macbeth. (Anne Pickles)

PopMatters discussing the controversial (to put it mildly) Japanese sex game Rapelay seems to think for sure that Heathcliff raped Isabella:

Literature has obviously covered the topic extensively as well, from Wuthering Heights to The Kite Runner. People arguing that these books are superior in their content because they handle the topic maturely are on shaky ground because, frankly, who wants to detail how to tastefully portray rape? (L.B. Jeffries)

We read on Globe Newswire about the novel debut of Gege Lambert, The Gateway. Apparently, the author likes the Brontës:

Gege Lambert was born and resides in Toronto, Ontario. She is passionate about romance. Her favorite authors are Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Baroness Emmuska Orczy. She greatly admires the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Emily Dickinson and finds William Shakespeare's words of love ever timeless. Like Ms. Austen, she has never married but has loved and is loved.

A weird Wuthering Heights connection can be traced in this news about a NCAA rules violation by the University of Alabama:

The report went on to stress the “academic nature” of the extra benefits.
“In short, it is a case about a semester’s use of Norton Anthologies, “Wuthering Heights,” math answer keys and other materials of an academic nature, all of which were returned [or charged to the student-athlete] when the semester is over,” the response said. (Cecil Hurt in The Tuscaloosa News)

Helsingborgs Dagblad interviews the Swedish politician Anne Marie Brodén. A new Brontëite:

Bästa bok?
Svårt att säga men en av mina favoriter är Sagan om ringen av Tolkien, en annan är Jane Eyre av Bronte. (Google translation)

On the blogosphere: Books for Dummies posts about Jane Eyre and Könyvmolyok reviews Wuthering Heights in Hungarian.

Finally, have you ever imagined how a Kentucky Fried Chicken would look like at Haworth Parsonage? We read in The Taranaki Daily News (New Zealand):

Tim [Chadwick] had to do a reading from The Scarecrow, which was written by Hawera author Ronald Hugh Morrieson, who also wrote Came a Hot Friday.
The reading was in the KFC in Hawera, which was built on the site of Morrieson's old home.
It was the first time Tim had been inside the KFC. In the early 1990s, he had fought against it.
Tim formed the Scarecrow Committee and petitioned the South Taranaki District Council to retain Morrieson's house. But the general feeling was KFC was more important, he says. More people signed a petition wanting KFC than wanting Morrieson's house.
"I think it is stupid, simple as that. I think one day there'll be enlightened people in Hawera who will realise it was wrong to get rid of it."
Tim has visited the Bronte sisters' house in England and Keats' house in London.
"Here was a golden opportunity for Hawera to do something similar and the call of fried chicken was greater." (Helen Harvey)

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Books, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, References, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights