January 28, 2010
The Brontës Query A Publisher (1846)
Today's post is a repeat from last year.
The Brontë sisters launched their literary career on this day when Charlotte wrote a letter to London publisher Aylott and Jones, wondering if they would be interested in their book of poetry.The sisters, living in their father’s parsonage in Haworth, a village surrounded by the Yorkshire moorlands, had always written for themselves. But the previous year, Charlotte had come across one of Emily’s notebooks and found poems “not at all like the poetry women generally write.” They were “terse, vigorous and genuine,” with a “peculiar music — wild, melancholy, and elevating.” She thought they should be published.
Emily refused, furious that Charlotte had snooped. Only when Anne offer poems of her own did she give way. To disguise their gender, the Brontës became the Bell brothers: Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell.
Although Charlotte had never published a book, she learned quickly and instructed the publisher on the proper size and binding for the book and the marketing campaign to follow (which consisted of sending review copies to the literary journals and newspapers). Four months later, a thousand copies of “Poems” was printed.
With no other support, the fate of the Bells’ book was depressingly predictable. The 37 review copies spawned two reviews and two sales. The rest of the edition was left unbound in the publisher’s cellars. (Today, a copy of the first edition would command a substantial sum.)
But the failure of “Poems” didn’t discourage the Brontës. When Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre” became the best-selling book of 1847, a second edition from the unbound sheets was issued. Even then, it took until 1860 before they were sold.
Born: John Baskerville, printer, bookseller, Wolverley, England, 1706; Sabine Baring-Gould, author, vicar, Exeter, England, 1834; Henry Morton Stanley (ps. John Rowlands), journalist, explorer, author, Denbigh, Denbigshire, Wales, 1841; José Mart¡, poet, revolutionary, Dos Rios, Cuba, 1853; (Sidonie Gabrielle) Colette, novelist, Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, 1873; David Lodge, novelist, scholar, London, 1935.
Died: Thomas Bodley, diplomat, scholar, library founder, London, 1613; Henri Murger, novelist, Paris, 1861; Vicente Ibanez, author, Menton, France, 1928; William Butler Yeats, poet, playwright, essayist, Roquebrune, France, 1939; Zora Neale Hurston, author, anthropologist, Fort Pierce, Fla., 1960; Josephine Herbst, novelist, journalist, New York City, 1969; Joseph Brodsky, poet, New York City, 1996; Astrid Lindgren, children's author, Stockholm, Sweden, 2002; Lucien Carr, Beat Generation muse, Washington, D.C., 2005.
Quote for the Day: “If we want to be sincere, we must admit that there is a well-nourished love and an ill-nourished love. And the rest is literature.” Colette, novelist, who was born today in 1873.
Also from “Writers 365":
- Richard Henry Dana ships out (1834)
- Lunar Tunes (1835)
- Melville Climbs A Mountain And Catches A Whale (1850)
- England Taxes Jane Carlyle (1855)
- Madame Bovary Gets Boinked (1856)
Enjoy this post? Share it with others.
