Margaret Smith. In Memoriam

We were shocked to learn that Margaret Smith died in January 2018 and no obituary has been written (as far as we know) about her. Just a brief paragraph in the April issue of the Brontë Society Gazette (and which, for some reason, slipped our radar) and a passing mention by the funeral services makes hardly justice to one of the most important Brontë scholars of the 20th century, if not of all time.

Margaret Middleton Smith (née Brammer) was born in 1931 at South Anston in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Her long relationship with the Brontës began with her very own M.A. thesis on Charlotte Brontë's The Professor. Later on, she joined the Clarendon Press, under the general editorship of the late Professor Ian Jack, and edited scholar editions of Jane Eyre (with Jane Jack) in 1969 and Shirley (1979), Villette (1984) and The Professor (1987) with Herbert Rosengarten. This last work provided her with a British Academy Award in 1989.

In 2003 she co-edited, with Christine Alexander, the monumental Oxford Companion to the Brontës which has just been republished in a new Anniversary Edition. It is worth quoting from Claire Harman's new preface:

This book, first published in 2003, catalogues and describes the lives and works of these perennially fascinating authors superbly well and has already become a classic work of reference. when I was writing about Charlotte Brontë in 2012-19, I found it so invaluable that I bought two copies, one for each address. It is both authoritative and intriguing, encyclopedic and delightful; along with the substantial essays you'd expect on the separate writers and their major works, you'll find shorter entries on individual poems, narratives, and even drafts, masses of information about friends, and associates, pithy and well chosen articles on the topical, historical, and geographical background of the Brontës' lives, as well as maps, chronologies, family trees, and a wonderfully wide selection of miscellaneous items about their reading, their pets, their heroes, their clothes, their artworks. (...)
This book is the best possible guide to those worlds, and all Brontë fans and scholars owe a debt of gratitude to those who have gathered, edited, and composed the vast amount of information its covers contain. The most authoritative editions and sources have been used, the most rational criteria applied; whether seeking to check a fact, follow a lead, or simply refresh a memory, it will never fail to entertain, instruct and intrigue. 

But, of course, her most important contribution to Brontë scholarship is her minutely, precise and definitive edition of The Letters of Charlotte Brontë in three volumes:

The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume I: 1829-1847: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends: 1829-47 Vol 1  (1995)
The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume II: 1848-1851: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends: 1848-1851 Vol 2 (2000)
The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume III: 1852 - 1855: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends: 1852-1855 Vol 3 (2004)

In 2007 a selection of the letters was published: Selected Letters of Charlotte Brontë, which also appeared in paperback in 2010, with a new introduction by Janet Gezari.

She also contributed to Brontë Studies / Brontë Society Transactions:

George Smith, Prince of Publishers, and William Smith Williams, Volume 36, 2011 - Issue 1, Pages 75-84
Professor Ian Jack, Brontë Studies, Volume 34, 2009 - Issue 2, Page 162
Professor Kathleen Tillotson, 1906–2001, Volume 27, 2002 - Issue 1, Pages 68-69
A Window on the World: Charlotte Brontë's Correspondence with her Publishers, Volume 21, 1996 - Issue 7, Pages 339-356
Newly Acquired Brontë Letters, Transcriptions and Notes, Volume 21, 1996 - Issue 7, Pages 323-336
Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell in Society, with J. A. V. Chapple, Volume 21, 1995 - Issue 5, Pages 161-167
Charlotte Brontë’s Letters, Volume 20, 1990 - Issue 1, Pages 39-42
A Reconstructed Letter, Margaret Smith, Volume 20, 1990 - Issue 1, Pages 42-47
‘A Warlike Correspondence’: More Letters From Harriet Martineau, Volume 18, 1985 - Issue 5, Pages 392-397
The Manuscripts of Charlotte Brontë’s Novels, Brontë Society Transactions, Volume 18, 1983 - Issue 3, Pages 189-205

At the Literary Luncheon of the Brontë Society held in Birmingham on 3 April 2004, she presented

Charlotte Brontë's Letters: The Editing Adventure (Brontë Studies, 29:3, 199-207) which as the title suggests was a kind of summary of the ten-year process of editing the Charlotte Brontë's letters. It makes a fascinating read and quoting from it is the right way to close this certainly insufficient but sincere eulogy:

The close scrutiny that editing involves can make it an emotional experience as well as an intellectual challenge. But, though more often than not I have been working alone, in the physical sense, I have had wonderful support from fellow Brontë enthusiasts and scholars, who have gladly shared their knowledge and expertise with me.