Anne Bronte is born
On this day in 1820 Anne Bronte the youngest of the six Bronte children is born in Yorkshire England.Their mother died when Anne was still an infant and the children were left largely to their own devices in the bleak parsonage in Haworth a remote village in Yorkshire where their father was a clergyman.Annes four older sisters all went to boarding school but the two eldest died and Emily and Charlotte returned home.
The girls along with their brother Branwell read voraciously and created their own elaborate stories about mythical lands.Anne Bronte was educated at home and worked as a governess from 1841 to 1845 during which time Emily and Charlotte went to Brussels to study school administration with the hopes of opening a school in Haworth.The school idea failed but another project took its place poetry.In 1845 Charlotte came across some poems Emily had written and the three sisters discovered they had all been secretly writing verse.
They self-published Poems by Currer Ellis and Acton Bell in 1846.Although the book sold only two copies the sisters continued writing.Charlottes Jane Eyre appeared in 1847 an instant success.
Emilys Wuthering Heights and Annes Agnes Grey were printed later that year.Annes next novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) explored the effects of a young mans unchecked debauchery.Anne died of tuberculosis in 1849 at the age of 29.
