The James S. Copley Library: Arts & Sciences, including the Mark Twain Collection
Sale: N08698 | Location: New York
Auction Dates:
Session 1: Thu, 17 Jun 10 10:00 AM
LOT 278
BRONTË, CHARLOTTE
70,000—100,000 USD
Description
Autograph letter signed ("C. Brontë"), 4 pages (7 x 4 3/8 in.; 178 x 111 mm) on mourning stationary, [Haworth Parsonage, Yorkshire,] 18 October 1848, to William Smith Williams; horizontal and vertical folds, minimal wear. Half blue morocco clamshell case; spine faded.
Catalogue Note
"My book—alas! is laid aside for the present ... imagination is pale, stagnant, mute..." An important and moving letter by Charlotte Brontë, written to W. S. William of Smith, Elder, her publishers. This letter was written in the brief interval between the death of her brother Bramwell (of chronic bronchitis exacerbated by heavy drinking) on 24 September and that of her sister Emily (of pulmonary tuberculosis) on 19 December. Her sister Anne would also die of tuberculosis in the spring of the next year.
After the success of her first novel, Jane Eyre, in 1847, Brontë immediately began work on her second novel, Shirley (pub. 1849). The loss of all three of her siblings understandably brought work on the novel to a halt—precisely on the day this letter was written. This revealing letter is worth quoting at length: "Not feeling competent this evening either for study or serious composition, I will console myself with writing to you. My malady—which the doctors call a bilious fever—lingers ....
"My book—alas! is laid aside for the present; both head and hand seem to have lost their cunning; imagination is pale, stagnant, mute—this incapacity chagrins me; sometimes I have a feeling of cankering care on the subject—but I combat it as well as I can—it does no good.
"... Do not talk about being on a level with 'Currer Bell', or regard him as 'an awful person'; if you saw him now, sitting muffled at the fireside, shrinking before the east wind (which for some days has been blowing wild and keen over our cold hills)—and incapable of lifting a pen for any less formidible task than that of writing ... to an indulgent friend—you would be sorry not to deem yourself greatly his superior ....
"Thought and Conscience are, or ought to be, free, and at any rate, if your views were universally adopted there would be no persecution, no bigotry. But never try to proselytise—the world is not yet fit to receive what you and Emerson say: Man, as he now is, can no more do without creeds and forms in religion, than he can do without laws and rules of social intercourse. You and Emerson judge others by yourselves; all mankind are not like you, any more than every Israelite was like Nathaniel.
"'Is there a human being' you ask, 'so depraved that an act of kindness will not touch—nay, a word melt him?' There are hundreds of human beings who trample on acts of kindness, and mock at words of affection. I know this though I have seen but little of the world. I suppose I have something harsher in my nature than you have—something which every now and then tells me dreary secrets about my race, and I cannot believe the voice of the optimist, charm he never so wisely—on the other hand, I feel forced to listen when a Thackeray speaks: I know Truth is delivering her oracle by his lips ....
"The study of motives is a strange one; not to be pursued too far by one fallible human being in reference to his fellows. Do not condemn me as uncharitable. I have no wish to urge my convictions on you ...."
A remarkable letter, dating from the darkest, most difficult period of Charlotte Brontë's short life.
LOT 279
BRONTË, CHARLOTTE
30,000—50,000 USD
Description
Autograph letter signed ("C. B."), 3 pages (7 1/2 x 4 3/4 in.; 190 x 120 mm), n.p. [Haworth Parsonage, Yorkshire], 3 April 1850, to Ellen Nussey; horizontal and vertical folds, few minor spots, lower portion of third page cut away (loss approx. 1 5/8 x 4 1/8 in.).
Provenance
George D. Smith (New York bookseller; with a clipped entry from a sale catalogue of his estate, item 66, $17.50; inscribed in ink "Bought, Feb. 11th, 1921")
Catalogue Note
Charlotte Brontë gives medical advice to her lifelong friend and correspondent, Ellen Nussey: "I certainly do think that you are generally too venturous in risking exposure to all weathers—there are sudden changes from hot to cold and vice versa—there are fogs, cold penetrating winds during which all people of constitutions not robust are better in the house than out of doors; regular exercise is an excellent thing, but unless you were much stronger than you are—in very cold or stormy weather—you cannot always with prudence enjoy it. I do not wish you to coddle yourself, but in future I trust you will be careful. There has evidently been in your system a gradually increasing inflammatory action. The late cold weather and the nervous irritation consequent on the tooth-business brought it to a crisis. I only trust that, that crisis safely passed, you will be better afterwards, but I repeat most seriously you will need care. Be in no hurry to rush out of doors .... As to night-air, eschew it for six months to come—maladies are sooner caught than cured. In your position it is positive duty to run no risks; if anything happened to you what would be your Mother's condition?"
Brontë then goes on to speculate on her negative impressions of someone she refers to as "J. T.", hoping he will not come to Haworth in the spring. She ends with another admonition: "Do not write again till you can do it without fatigue—but as soon as you feel able indite to me a particular detailed account of your state—speak the truth, and give no deceiving gloss."
LOT 280Categories: Brontëana
BRONTË, CHARLOTTE
40,000—60,000 USD
Description
Autograph letter signed ("C. Brontë"), 4 pages (7 1/8 x 4 5/8 in.; 180 x 118 mm), Haworth, Yorkshire, 25 August 1852, to Ellen Nussey; horizontal fold, minor soiling, small rust stain on last page of letter affecting one word, narrow glue stain along right margin of last page.
Catalogue Note"I am a lonely woman and likely to be lonely." In this letter written to Ellen Nussey two years before her marriage and three years before her death, Charlotte Brontë speaks of her domestic unhappiness and her lonliness and alludes to her work on the novel Villette (completed 20 November 1852; pub. 1853).
After discussing the illnesses of her father and one of the servants, Brontë asks to know why Nussey is not open and forthcoming in her letters: "I can hardly guess what checks you in writing to me—There is certainly no one in this house or elsewhere to whom I should show your notes—and I do not imagine they are in any peril in passing through the Post-Offices. Perhaps you think that as I generally write with some reserve—you ought to do the same. My reserve, however, has its foundation not in design, but in necessity—I am silent because I have literally nothing to say. I might indeed repeat over and over again that my life is a pale blank and often a very weary burden—but what end would be unanswered by such repetition except to weary you and enervate myself? The evils that now and then wring a groan from my heart—lie in position—not that I am a single woman and likely to remain a single woman—but because I am a lonely woman and likely to be lonely. But it cannot be helped and therefore imperatively must be borne—and borne too with as few words about it as may be.
"I write all this just to prove to you that whatever you would freely say to me—you may just as freely write."
Brontë ends the letter with an affirmation of the importance of finishing Villette in the coming months: "Understand—that I remain just as resolved as ever not to allow myself the holiday of a visit from you—till I have done my work. After labour—pleasure—but while work is lying at the need undone—I never yet could enjoy recreation."
A fine letter written late in Charlotte's Brontë's life.
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