It is an unprecedented treasure trove of the UK’s literary heritage, from a letter in which Jane Austen anticipates the end of a love affair, to a handwritten manuscript of Emily Brontë’s poems that was once believed lost. Now the Honresfield library has been saved for the nation after a charity raised more than £15m in just five months to acquire it.Half the amount was donated by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, with a further £4m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). The remainder was raised through donations from organisations including the TS Eliot and the Foyle foundations, another £2.5m from museums and libraries, and “thousands” of individual donations, which raised just under £150,000 from people around the world. [...]Blavatnik, Britain’s richest man, match-funded the sum raised by FNL and the consortium institutions, which included the Bodleian, the British Library and the National Library of Scotland as well as Abbotsford, the home of Walter Scott in Melrose, Jane Austen’s House in Chawton and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.The FNL thanked him for his “exceptional munificence”, and said that “in recognition of his great generosity the collection will henceforth be known as the Blavatnik Honresfield library”. Blavatnik’s donation is the largest ever given by an individual to the UK for a literary treasure, while the £4m given by the NHMF is the largest it has ever awarded for the acquisition of literary manuscripts. The FNL raised £15.3m in total, of which the purchase price is £15m, and the rest a combination of VAT and fees.“There has been unprecedented public interest in this collection of manuscripts and books hidden for almost a century. Rescuing it has seemed a little like opening an Egyptian tomb to see for the first time ancient texts and treasures which are now saved in perpetuity for students, scholars and book-lovers,” said Geordie Greig, chairman of the FNL and former editor of the Daily Mail. “The generosity of all the donors has been incredible in saving this unique library.” [...]Sotheby’s specialist Dr Gabriel Heaton said the collection was “like no other that has come to market in recent decades. We were amazed and delighted at the incredible ambition of the FNL’s plan to acquire the whole library, and they deserve every credit for bringing their campaign to a successful conclusion. Their success is a testament to what can be achieved by the collaboration of public institutions and private collectors.” (Alison Flood)
In the presence of so much handwritten material by the Brontës, Austen, Scott and Burns, you find yourself imagining that the authors have just popped out of the room. “Manuscripts,” says Prof Kathryn Sutherland, as she leafs through an exercise book filled by Emily Brontë with poems, “are sticky with their writers’ presence.” [...]The tiny storybooks made by Charlotte Brontë to narrate the adventures of her toy-soldier hero Lord Charles Wellesley are, needless to say, spellbinding. The miniature pages are hand-folded, and one can see how they were cut to size by scissors held in small hands. The covers were made from paper packaging from the local pharmacy, stamped clearly with: “Purified Epsom Salts, sold by J West, chemist and druggist, Keighley” – the Yorkshire town being about four miles from Haworth village, where the Brontës lived.Among the other Brontë items is a “diary paper” written by Emily on her 23rd birthday, 30 July 1841, “to be opened when Anne is 25 years old or my next birthday if all be well”. It begins: “It is Friday evening – near 9 o’clock – wild rainy weather.” In the top left-hand corner of the paper she has sketched herself sitting writing at her desk; in the top righthand corner she’s drawn herself looking out of the window at that wild weather.With a few strokes of her nib, the characterful images bring us into the room with her. An exercise book full of fair copies of 31 of her poems retains the habit of tiny writing, and there is a brilliant page where, at the end of her poem that begins: “How beauteous the Earth is still / To thee – how full of happiness,” her sister Charlotte has added, firmly: “Never was better stuff penned.” In the presence of this triumphant sisterly certainty, who would want to argue? (Charlotte Higgins)
Masud Khokhar, University Librarian and Keeper of the Brotherton Collection, said: “At the core of this campaign was a wish to make works by literary giants accessible to all. Its success is an important moment for literature and these new pieces will create exciting research and scholarship opportunities across the globe.“It is fitting that all of the Brontë treasures will, at various times, be housed in West Yorkshire, thanks to the partnership with the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the British Library. We look forward to working together on engagement opportunities. Next year, many will be on public display at the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, giving the public free access to these extraordinary works.”Joanne Fitton, Associate Director: Special Collections and Galleries at the University said: “The manuscript letters by Branwell Brontë complement our substantial collection of materials relating to the brother. The collection gives a unique insight into his mind as he battled with addiction and a failed relationship.”“We are very grateful to the Charles Brotherton Trust for its continued support of the Brotherton Collection and this appeal.”The campaign has been supported by HRH The Prince of Wales, a Patron of National Libraries. He said: “It is tremendous news for our country that Friends of the National Libraries, a charity of which I am proud to be Patron, has raised £15 million in just five months to save one of the most significant collections, including manuscripts by Charlotte Brontë, Walter Scott and Robert Burns.“I can only congratulate the Chairman, Geordie Greig, and his team for saving the Blavatnik Honresfield Library for the nation, with its treasures now to be owned by some of our greatest national libraries across the U.K. Our literary heritage is our cultural DNA and this preserves it for students, teachers, academics and ordinary readers in perpetuity.”
Britain’s wealthiest man has saved one of the country’s most significant troves of literary treasures.Sir Leonard Blavatnik has donated half of the £15 million required to prevent the Honresfield Library being dispersed and sold on the open market. [...]The FNL paid tribute to Blavatnik’s “extraordinary donation” — the largest ever given by an individual in Britain for a literary treasure — and said that it had saved for the nation “the most significant collection of manuscripts and books at risk of dispersal for many decades”. [...]The letters and about 1,400 books are to be donated to institutions across the country, with the Brontë material going to the British Library, the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the University of Leeds. [...]Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, said that the five-month fundraising mission to save the “literary crown jewels” had been incredible. “What makes it significant and remarkable is that these manuscripts by Walter Scott, Charlotte Brontë, Robert Burns and Jane Austen will now be returned to the places where they were written,” she said.Geordie Greig, chairman of the FNL, said that there had been “unprecedented public interest in this collection of manuscripts and books hidden for almost a century”. He added: “Rescuing it has seemed a little like opening an Egyptian tomb to see for the first time ancient texts and treasures which are now saved in perpetuity for students, scholars and book-lovers.” [...]If the Queen were ever to be short of a bob or two, then do not be surprised to see her one day travelling along The Mall towards Blavatnik Palace. [...]There has been £50 million to Tate Modern, whose ziggurat extension is known as the Blavatnik Building, £10 million to the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a few million to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which named an entrance hall after him. [...]The industrialist, who holds UK and US citizenship, has also contributed to academic institutions, with £75 million to Oxford University a decade ago for the Blavatnik School of Government and $200 million to Harvard Medical School in 2018. [...]His initial wealth came from stakes in newly privatised Russian companies in the former Soviet Union’s aluminium trade, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, before he branched out into the petrochemical sector.In recent years he has concentrated on the entertainment industry. He owns the sports streaming service Dazn, has a £12 billion stake in Warner Music and has acquired a series of hotels and resorts in the United States, south of France and Bahamas. He spent £45 million buying Theatre Royal Haymarket, one of London’s most cherished theatres.He also, according to the Rich List, owns a collection of properties in New York worth several hundred million dollars and is the owner of a £200 million family home in Kensington Palace Gardens. (David Sanderson)
Success would also not have been possible without the hugely generous support of each of the consortium institutions and of very many funders including The Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation, The Murray Family, Camelot Group, The Foyle Foundation, The David Cock Foundation, The T S Eliot Foundation, Hugh and Catherine Stevenson; Berkeley Foundation; British Library Collections Trust; American Trust for the British Library; B. H. Breslauer Fund of the American Trust for the British Library; The Ardeola Trust; The Vogel-Denebeim Family, and the Penchant Foundation.
Serendipity... 16 December 1775 - birth of Jane Austen; 16 December 1893 - founding of the #Brontë Society; 16 December 2021 - #BlavatnikHonresfieldLibrary saved for the nation by @FNL313. https://t.co/lDufLLV4NN
— Brontë Parsonage (@BronteParsonage) December 16, 2021
Maureen LipmanI have just re-read, via audiobooks, my old favourite Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It is quite different every decade. This time I was amazed by how late any kind of levity appears. Perhaps I only recalled the happiness she finally found with Rochester and conveniently forgot the awful downtrodden years with her aunt and cousins, the painful years at school, the bleakness of her teaching years, the satisfaction of her turning down the pious cousin’s proposal and the terrible revelations of the existence of Bertha Rochester, Rochester's very much alive wife. This time I was more aware of the Alpha male side of Rochester and this time I questioned more his keeping Bertha in the same house as himself and his ward when he clearly had the option of housing her elsewhere. Am I nit-picking? I still cried, I still relished the loving rapport between Jane and her beloved Rochester when they finally achieve harmony, but I understood fully why Jean Rhys wanted to give Bertha Rochester her side of the story in Wide Sargasso Sea. The two books should be read together . If I had a book club that is what I would arrange. With food!
What do you listen to while you’re working?Tame Impala for energy, the Jane Eyre (2011, Dario Marianelli) soundtrack for a sense inner drama, Bach for passion, and Bollywood ballads from the ’60s and ’70s for comfort. Sometimes, especially when starting a painting, I like total silence.
Susannah Fullerton, 61, is president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia and an atheist. Walter Mason, 51, is president of the NSW Dickens Society and a Buddhist. The pair met a decade ago and bonded over books. [...]Walter: I’d heard about Susannah for years: Jane Austen expert, wonderful speaker, president of JASA, lived in Sydney’s Paddington. I had a vision of this terrifying woman – a real grand dame. Then I went to her talk at Strathfield library – Strathfield, not Ashfield, where she is a queen – and it was a flop. I was the only person there when I arrived, so we started talking, and she was just so humble, so friendly. And an incredible speaker! By the end of her talk I was completely in love with her. I bought all her books – I read them all – then joined JASA, then the Dickens Society, then the Australian Brontë Association. (Amanda Hooton)
Y de 1966, Ancho mar de los sargazos, de la autora anglocaribeña Jean Rhys, suerte de precuela de Jane Eyre, de Charlotte Brontë: se narra allí cómo la criolla Bertha Mason conoce y se casa con el señor Rochester, y las trágicas circunstancias que transita hasta acabar sola y demente, atormentada y delirante en ese ático de Thornfield Hall que -como es sabido- termina sumido en llamas. (Guadalupe Treibel) (Translation)
Nativity WeekendMain Street, HaworthDecember 18 to 19For a traditional Christmas atmosphere in the heart of Brontë Country, visit Haworth Main Street for a nativity celebration. Gather at the Christmas tree and meet Mary and Joseph as they search for a place to rest. (Felicity Macnamara)
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