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Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell - Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte. Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Smith Elder and Co, 1846.

Price: US$6822.62 + shipping

Condition: Fine

Description: The Prime Minister's Copy. The first published work in print by the Bronte sisters. Self published at a cost of £35 18s 3d under masculine pseudonyms to avoid contemporary prejudices against female authors. All three retained the first letter of their first names; Charlotte became Currer, Emily became Ellis, Anne became Acton and Bronte became Bell. This is the first edition second issue; 1000 copies were initially printed by Aylott & Jones in 1846 but only two copies were sold in the first year. A further 37 copies were given away by the sisters as either review copies or gifts to authors whom they admired. It is known that Wordsworth, Tennyson, Coleridge and De Quincey each received a copy. On the 19th October 1847 Smith Elder published Jane Eyre by Currer Bell. It was an immediate success and sold well. In 1848 Smith Elder bought up the remaining 969 copies of poems from Aylott & Jones and replaced the title page with their own but still dated it 1846. This being one of those copies. By the end of 1848 Smith Elder had sold all the copies. It seems some had advertisements tipped in at the rear but this copy has none; however, it does bear the Armorial book plate of the 14th Earl of Derby; Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley (29th March 1799 - 23 October 1869), known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, he was a British Statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as British Prime Minister. To date, he is the longest serving leader of the Conservative party and is one of only a dozen people to have had memorial statues erected to them in Parliament Square. Our copy still retains the elusive errata slip. Also included are two letters hand written by Lord Stanley and each signed by him; one as Stanley and the other as Derby. Housed in a quarter morocco solander box made by The Wyvern Bindery in royal blue leather with gilt tooling to spine. Author, title and date in gilt to spine. New spine by The Wyvern Bindery with gilt titles, Pages re-sewn. Original boards and pastedowns. No marks or inscriptions internally save Lord Stanley's bookplate. A very handsome and unique copy of this scarce title.

Seller: No. 5 Rare Books, Caistor, United Kingdom