Bronte and Austen treasures saved by national libraries charity

A collection of British literary treasures has been saved from sale abroad by a national libraries charity.

Rare handwritten poems by Emily Brontë, works by Robert Burns and Jane Austen first editions are included in the collection.

Friends of National Libraries (FNL) have raised over £15m to acquire the Honresfield Library, which houses the works, and say they intend to keep it in the public domain.

The library has been largely inaccessible for the last 80 years.

It was curated towards the end of the 19th century by Rochdale mill owner William Law.

He gathered manuscripts and printed books written by literary giants from England and Scotland.

Auction house Sotheby's announced the sale of the library, in three tranches, in May 2021.

Emily Bronte's poems had been expected to fetch between £800,000 and £1.2m, and a first edition of her novel Wuthering Heights between £200,000 and £300,000.

However, FNL successfully petitioned the agents to postpone the sale.

The delay allowed the charity to raise sufficient funds to purchase the entire collection outright on behalf of libraries in the UK.

Following the purchase, FNL said the collection will remain permanently in the public domain and never be lost to overseas institutions or to private collections that are inaccessible to the British public.

The collection includes multiple works by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, including short stories, poems and manuscripts, which have remained unseen for 80 years and never properly examined.

Works by Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen also feature, including two letters from the latter to her sister Cassandra - one of which discusses the reception of both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.

A compendium of poems, notes, personal letters and ideas put together by Burns when he was an unknown 24-year-old are also part of the collection.

The charity said all of the manuscripts and printed books will be distributed to relevant institutions across the UK to ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy the literary "treasure trove."

The Prince of Wales, who is a patron of FNL, described the acquisition as "tremendous news for our country".

He said: "I can only congratulate the chairman, Geordie Greig, and his team for saving the Blavatnik Honresfield Library for the nation, with its treasures now to be owned by some of our greatest national libraries across the UK.

"Our literary heritage is our cultural DNA and this preserves it for students, teachers, academics and ordinary readers in perpetuity."

Items in the Honresfield Library include:

Greig, who is also a former editor of the Daily Mail, said: "The generosity of all the donors has been incredible in saving this unique library.

"There has been unprecedented public interest in this collection of manuscripts and books hidden for almost a century.

"Rescuing it has seemed a little like opening an Egyptian tomb to see for the first time ancient texts and treasures which are now saved in perpetuity for students, scholars and book-lovers."

When the sale of the Honresfield Library was first announced, the Bronte Society said the "rightful home" for the "unique and extraordinary" manuscripts was the museum in the sisters' former home in Haworth, West Yorkshire.