It took a few years, but a book of poems written by Charlotte Brontë 195 years ago has finally been published. Charlotte was only 13 years old at the time and still almost two decades away from suddenly becoming a famous author. She had no expectations nor even intention that it be published. Probably, she would be a bit embarrassed as no one likes the world to see what they wrote at age 13, but such is the price of fame. However, it gives us an insight into her love for writing and the talent that would emerge as she grew up.
The book is titled A Book of Ryhmes by Chrlotte Brontë, Sold by Nobody, and Printed by Herself. The spelling is hers, even of her name. The young author modestly writes, “This book is written by myself but I pretend that the Marquis of Duro & Lord Charles Wellesley in the Young Men's World have written one like it, & the Songs marked in the Index so * are written by the Marquis of Duro and those marked so † are written by Lord Charles Wellesley. The following are attempts at rhyming of an inferior nature it must be acknowledged but they are nevertheless my best.”
Charlotte's mother died in 1826, when she was 10 years old. It led the Brontë siblings, sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and brother Patrick, to become very close. They invented their own imaginary world, “Glass Town.” It was the abode of some toy soldiers their father had given Patrick. They wrote stories, poems and a magazine about their imagined world. It was the beginning of the made-up though believable worlds the sisters wrote about as adults.
There are other juvenile writings by the siblings but they were already in institutional collections. This one was virtually unknown until it appeared for sale in 2022 by booksellers Maggs Bros. and James Cummins. It had appeared twice in short order at auction over a century ago. It was sold at Sotheby's in 1914 in the sale of Mrs. A.B. Nicholls, widow of Rev. A.B. Nicholls, whose first wife was Charlotte Brontë. It was sold again at Walpole Galleries on November 17, 1916. At that sale, it was sold for $520, buyer unknown. It disappeared from public view thereafter until reappearing with Cummins and Maggs in 2022.
The booksellers sold the Brontë miniature (3.8” x 2.5”) manuscript book for a reported $1.25 million to a private buyer who immediately donated it to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The parsonage museum is in the house in which the Brontë children grew up in Haworth. The museum was given a massive collection of Brontë family material valued at $20 million the prior year, so this last juvenile work of Charlotte still in private hands fit well with their collection.
You can order A Book of Ryhmes directly from the Brontë Parsonage Museum. You can purchase it as a hardback transcribed copy of ten original Charlotte Brontë poems. It features images of the original manuscript and essays about it. There is a forward by Patti Smith, the famed 70s punk rock poet, an icon in her field, who is now also a notable book collector. You can order a copy at the following link: bronteshop.org.uk/collections/pre-order-a-book-of-ryhmes
