A delightful matchbox-sized booklet penned by the famous English novelist and poet, Charlotte Brontë was bought by Harvard’s Houghton Library, a museum in Haworth, England. The tiny booklet/magazine fetched the pretty sum of $777,000. In a series of six tiny magazines, it was known as The Young Men’s Magazine. This one of six miniatures was bought from the auction house Drouot in Paris.
In 1830 Bronte was only 14 years old. She created 6 miniature magazines edited by herself and which features dramatic stories and tiny hand-lettered ads.
It seems fitting that the tiny treasure has gone back “home to the stone parsonage on the edge of the moorlands to where they were once created.
According to the New York Times, Ann Dinsdale, curator of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, declared in a statement, “This unique manuscript will be back in Haworth is an absolute highlight of my 30 years working at the museum. Charlotte wrote this minuscule magazine for the toy soldiers she and her siblings played with, and as we walk through the same rooms they did, it seems immensely fitting that it is coming home.”
The Brontë Museum raised over $111,000 through crowdfunding that drew the attention and support from prominent persons in the arts. Among the patrons is the actress Judi Dench, the honorary president of the Brontë Society. The National Heritage Memorial Fund and other groups provided the bulk of the purchase value.
The 4,000-word manuscript has 19-pages, and measures about 1.5 by 2.5 inches. It also features delightful hand-lettered ads. One reads, “Six young men wish to let themselves all a hire for the purpose in cleaning out pockets they are in reduced CIRCUMSTANCES.”
There are three stories set in the fictional setting of Glass Town and involves a scene that is akin to a famous incident in Jane Eyre where Mr. Rochester’s wife sets fire to his bed.
The Brontë Parsonage owns four of the six volumes of The Young Men’s Magazine. The remaining booklet whereabouts is unknown. It has not been seen since around 1930, the museum declared.
The little series was created by Brontë after she indicated editorial independence from Branwell’s Blackwoods Magazine, created by her brother, Branwell.
On a title page on one of the earlier magazines, the young author wrote: “Edited by the genius C.B.,”
