The Blavatnik Honresfield Library is a unique collection of literary Manuscripts and books put together in the late 19th century. It was bought last year with funds from the Friends of the National
Libraries, as reported in detail in our summer 2022 issue, and its contents divided to appropriate homes in museums and libraries around the UK.

 

The British Library received 102 printed books, four manuscript items, and the William Maskell chapbook collection. The manuscripts have now been fully digitized and images can be found at the BL’s Archives and Manuscripts catalogue:

* Characters of the Celebrated Men of the Present Time by Captain Tree, a miniature volume (the size of a small matchbox) by Charlotte Brontë written when she was 13. Narrated by Captain Tree, one of Charlotte’s earliest pen names, chapters focus on real figures such as the Duke of Wellington, as well as fictional ones from the Glass Town fantasy land created by the Brontë siblings. Digitization allows users to zoom in on Charlotte’s tiny script.

* A letter from Charlotte Brontë to her publisher William Smith Williams using her pen name ‘C. Bell’ complaining about delays in the publication of novels by her sisters Emily (‘Ellis’) and Anne (‘Acton’) by Thomas Newby.

* Emily Brontë’s notebook of her poems between 1844 and 1846, one of the few of her literary manuscripts to survive. She transcribed 31 of her own poems into this notebook, including the date of original composition. Some have additions and revisions by Charlotte.