I’m delighted to have recently acquired this first edition, second issue with cancelled title page, copy of ‘Poems’ by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846). This book, one of the original 1000 copies that the Brontë sisters paid for the publication of through London-based company Aylott and Jones, is in very good condition for its age and rebound in half blue morocco with an elaborate gilt decoration to its spine. It was once in the possession of the British book collector Howard Douglas Leonard Galton (1858-1923) before being passed onto his descendants following his death and then aquired by myself from a highly respected antiquarian book shop based here in England. This volume contains 19 poems by Charlotte (Currer) and 21 each by Emily (Ellis) and Anne (Acton).

As is now legend, this collection of poems, the Brontës first foray into the world of publishing, was sadly an initial commercial failure. It is said that this could partly be attributed to a downturn in interest in poetry in the early Victorian era but more likely that Aylott and Jones, who received and accepted the poem manuscripts in early 1846, where primarily booksellers and stationers rather than full blown publishers and therefore in retrospect the chances of a successful publication were severely reduced.

When the volume was published in May 1846 (at the princely cost to the sisters of £35 18s 3d) only two copies of the book were eventually sold. Charlotte sent some to a handful of reviewers in order to try and generate interest and the following year after still receiving little attention, about 20 were sent to famous authors that the sisters revered. Despite their best efforts, there was still some 961 left unsold and it was only following the huge critical success of Charlotte’s ‘Jane Eyre‘ that her publishers, Smith, Elder & Co. agreed in September 1848 to buy up the remaining stock including sheets, cases, and bound copies and re-publish them in a second issue (the version purchased by myself and seen in these photos) but retaining the original 1846 date. This re-issue of the first edition reversed the initial failure and would end up selling out leading to a second edition being released in 1850 with further poems from both Emily and Anne included. The original books with Aylott and Jones still on the title page are now extremely scarce and there are said to be no more than ten copies left in existence.

It’s amazing to hold this piece of literary history, smell the age of the pages that are over 176 years old, printed at a time when ‘Wuthering Heights‘ was unfinished and ‘Jane Eyre‘ as yet unwritten.