Sold By Nobody And Printed By Herself

 

Almost two hundred years ago, a thirteen year old girl
created a little book of poems, about the size of a deck of
playing cards.  She sewed her poems into the book with
needle and thread.  This teen-aged girl, whose painstaking
work was recently found again, would one day become
one of the most acclaimed novelists of English literature.

Her name was Charlotte Bronte.

Image courtesy/Salina Public Library

This quaint volume of poetry, written by the author
   of the 19th century gothic romance novel, "Jane Eyre"
  recently sold at auction for a whopping $1.5 million dollars!

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the just-sold
manuscript was last publicly seen in 1916 in New York,
where it was sold for $520.00.  It was recently
discovered again as part of a private collection,
 tucked away in a letter-sized envelope between 
the pages of a 19th century schoolbook.

Dated 1829,  the words, "Sold by Nobody, Printed by Herself"
sewn into the title page of the miniscule book reveals the 
  spunky side of this bright and highly imaginative girl, 
 whose future works would be read and loved by
  generations of people all over the world.

Charlotte Bronte and her sisters, Emily and Anne, grew up 
 in a time when women were not taken seriously as writers.
They originally published their poems and novels under
 the male pseudonyms, Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, a British non-profit
organization called Friends of the National Libraries purchased the
book which contains Charlotte Bronte's only remaining unpublished
poetry, and will donate it to the Bronte Parsonage Museum
in Haworth, England the small Yorkshire town where 
 the Bronte sisters lived and wrote their famous novels.

Charlotte Bronte's Little Book Of Poems

Photograph courtesy/Smithsonian Magazine