Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855), the British novelist best known for Jane Eyre, was born in Thornton, a small West Yorkshire village in England.

She was born into a clerical family that valued education and became the family chronicler and champion. Charlotte led the charge for herself and her two equally brilliant sisters, Emily and Anne, in their quest to become published authors.

Charlotte’s parents were Patrick Brontë, an Anglican clergyman of Irish descent, and Maria Branwell. The family lived in Haworth, an isolated town on the moors of northern England. She was the third child born to the Brontës; her older sisters Maria, named after her mother, and Elizabeth, each died around the age of ten. After Charlotte came Branwell, the only brother, then Emily, and finally Anne.

In the mid-1840s, Charlotte discovered a stash of Emily’s poems and recognized the genius in them. She undertook the task of finding a home for a collaborative book of poems by herself and her two sisters. They took masculine noms de plume (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne were Currer, Ellis, and Acton, respectively, and shared the faux surname Bell).

The book, dryly titled Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell’s Poems, finally did find a publisher. As was the custom, the authors were required to front the money for its printing. It was published in 1846 to absolutely no fanfare and humiliating sales, totaling two copies.