Free Brontës by Juliet Barker Page A

London, 1996) and Christine Alexander and Jane Sellars’s The Art of the Brontës (Cambridge, 1995) have also broken new ground in publishing material previously only available to researchers in archives. Derek Roper’s The Poems of Emily Brontë (Oxford, 1995), Heather Glen’s Charlotte Brontë: Tales of Angria (London, 2006) and Dudley Green’s The Letters of the Reverend Patrick Brontë (Stroud, 2005) all provide useful and accessible editions of the Brontës’ writings. For the convenience of all readers, new and old, I have changed all my references to these new editions and (occasionally) accepted their new readings.
    Much less original material has surfaced since 1994 but this includes important new evidence showing that two of Charlotte’s drawings were accepted for a public exhibition in Leeds in 1834 and, conversely, proving that Branwell did not attend the Royal Academy in 1835 and that a varietyof alternative careers had been considered for him. Charlotte’s letter describing her wedding dress is a particularly delightful new find, there are piquant details in the Bishop of Ripon’s description of his hostess at Haworth Parsonage in 1853 and a touching letter to the same bishop from the newly bereaved Patrick, who had just lost his sixth and last child. Additional information, particularly about Haworth and the locality in the Brontë era, has emerged and I am grateful, in particular, to Steven Wood, Robin Greenwood and Ian and Catherine Emberson for their corrections and assistance. I am also indebted to members of the Brontë Parsonage Museum staff, particularly Sarah Laycock, Polly Salter and Sean Killian, who have all gone out of their way to assist me in preparing this new edition. Finally, I would like to thank my publishers, Little, Brown, for giving The Brontës a new lease of life.
    Juliet Barker
    February 2010

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Throughout the many years it has taken to complete this book I have naturally incurred many debts. First and foremost amongst these is to my immediate family, my parents, husband and children, who have suffered endlessly (but not always in silence) because of my obsession. Without their practical assistance, encouragement and forbearance, this biography could never have been written. Secondly, I owe a debt I can never repay to Ian Beck, consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician, who saw me through the worst year of my existence. His quite exceptional kindness, good humour and medical skill saved my sanity and my health; his goddaughter, Sophie Jane, owes her life to him. Thirdly, though it is invidious to single out only some of those who have helped me with my research, I would like to make a special mention of Margaret Smith, who read through my entire manuscript and, with her meticulous eye for detail, saved me from an embarrassing number of errors. She also pinpointed the locations of many Brontë manuscript holdings which I would not have otherwise found. Sue Lonoff of Harvard University, Professor Victor Neufeldt of the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and Rebecca Fraser all gave extensive assistance and much moral support. Special mention is also due to Diana Chardin of Trinity College, Cambridge, for letting me know about her discovery of transcripts of Branwell’s letters and to Eileen Maughan of the Cumbria Record Office, Barrow-in-Furness, for undertaking research on my behalf in an effort to identify Branwell’s illegitimate child.
    I am grateful to the staff and governing bodies of the following institutions for assisting me in my research and giving me permission to quote from manuscripts in their care: Beinecke Library, Yale University; Berg Collection, New York Public Library; Birmingham University Library; Bodleian Library, Oxford; Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York; Boston Public Library, Massachusetts; British Library and British Newspaper Library; British and Foreign Bible Society;