It is an unprecedented treasure trove of the UK’s literary heritage, from a letter in which Jane Austen anticipates the end of a love affair, to a handwritten manuscript of Emily Brontë’s poems that was once believed lost. Now the Honresfield library has been saved for the nation after a charity raised more than £15m in just five months to acquire it.
Half the amount was donated by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, with a further £4m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). The remainder was raised through donations from organisations including the TS Eliot and the Foyle foundations, another £2.5m from museums and libraries, and “thousands” of individual donations, which raised just under £150,000 from people around the world.
Assembled towards the end of the 19th century by the Rochdale mill owner William Law, the Honresfeld library has been almost entirely inaccessible for the last 80 years. It was put up for auction at Sotheby’s earlier this year, to the horror of literary institutions up and down the country, who feared that precious manuscripts by the Brontës, Austen, Walter Scott and Robert Burns could fall into private hands. Led by the charity Friends of the National Libraries (FNL), an “unprecedented” consortium of libraries and museums came together to save the collection – which includes more than 500 manuscripts, first editions and letters – for the nation. The vendors and Sotheby’s agreed to postpone the sale while the funds were raised.
Blavatnik, Britain’s richest man, match-funded the sum raised by FNL and the consortium institutions, which included the Bodleian, the British Library and the National Library of Scotland as well as Abbotsford, the home of Walter Scott in Melrose, Jane Austen’s House in Chawton and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
The FNL thanked him for his “exceptional munificence”, and said that “in recognition of his great generosity the collection will henceforth be known as the Blavatnik Honresfield library”. Blavatnik’s donation is the largest ever given by an individual to the UK for a literary treasure, while the £4m given by the NHMF is the largest it has ever awarded for the acquisition of literary manuscripts. The FNL raised £15.3m in total, of which the purchase price is £15m, and the rest a combination of VAT and fees.
“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,” said Geordie Greig, chairman of the FNL and former editor of the Daily Mail. “The generosity of all the donors has been incredible in saving this unique library.”
As well as a humorous letter from Austen to her sister Cassandra, in which she writes, on the eve of a ball, that “at length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow at the melancholy idea,” the collection contains an early volume of poems by Robert Burns in his own hand, and the complete working manuscript of Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy. Seven of Charlotte Brontë’s famous “little books” also feature, but the FNL said the “absolute jewel” of the Brontë collection is Emily Brontë’s notebook of 31 poems, believed by many scholars to have been lost, and including annotations in Charlotte’s hand.
Sotheby’s specialist Dr Gabriel Heaton said the collection was “like no other that has come to market in recent decades. We were amazed and delighted at the incredible ambition of the FNL’s plan to acquire the whole library, and they deserve every credit for bringing their campaign to a successful conclusion. Their success is a testament to what can be achieved by the collaboration of public institutions and private collectors.”
The manuscripts and books will now be donated by the FNL to institutions around the UK.
“We are delighted that the library is to remain in the UK and as the property of the nation with many of the books and manuscripts returning to their birthplaces for all to see and enjoy,” said the family in a statement.
Roly Keating, chief executive of the British Library, said the collaboration between institutions to bring about the purchase was “remarkable and unprecedented”. Giles Ingram, chief executive of the Abbotsford Trust, added: “To think that manuscripts written by Walter Scott in his own hand, will be returning to his homeland, many to his own home, is a triumph.”
