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Creator
Brontë, Anne, 1820-1849
Call number
Berg Coll MSS 186118
Physical description
0.21 linear feet (1 box)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Anne Brontë papers, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library
Repository
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
Access to materials
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Anne Brontë (1820-1849) was an English writer and poet and the sister of Charlotte, Emily, and Patrick Branwell Brontë. Her papers consist of three holograph poems, dated circa 1844, and supplemental material, dated approximately 1895, by Thomas James Wise (1859-1937) about the history of the poems.

Biographical/historical information

Anne Brontë (born 1820 in Thornton, England) was an English writer and poet best known for the novels Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). She was the youngest sibling of the English writers Charlotte, Emily, and Patrick Branwell Brontë.

Brontë was educated at home and at Roe Head School and worked as a governess. In 1846, Brontë published twenty-one poems in the poetry collection, Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell under the pseudonym, Acton Bell. Her first novel, Agnes Grey (1847), was published in conjunction with her sister Emily's novel, Wuthering Heights (1847).

In 1848, Brontë became ill shortly after publishing her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). She died in 1849 in Scarborough, England.

Scope and arrangement

The Anne Brontë papers contain three of her holograph poems, dated around 1844, and additional materials, dated approximately 1895. The first line of the text was used to identify poems without titles. Of the holograph poems, one is a fragment that begins, "Yes, I will take a cheerful tone" (January 26, 1844), while the other two poems are complete, "The Student's Serenade" (February 1844) and "When sinks my very heart" (1840s).

Handwritten descriptions by the British bibliographer and forger Thomas James Wise comprise the additional materials. The manuscripts describe the poems' provenance, publication history, and place within the Brontë canon.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

W. T. H. Howe; purchased with the W. T. H. Howe collection by Albert A. Berg in 1940; gift of Albert A. Berg, 1940.

Processing information

Processed by Amy Lau in 2022.

Using the collection

Location

Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Third Floor, Room 320