[Brontë, Emily] | Wuthering Heights, first American edition

[Brontë, Emily]

Wuthering Heights. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1848

12mo (188 x 125 mm). Foxed, several gatherings dampstained, a few old creases at corners, one or two ink stains. Publisher's ripple-grain cloth, boards stamped in blind, spine lettered and embellished in gilt; overall rubbed with loss and fraying, staining and soiling to cloth, joints starting.

The first American edition of the turbulent Gothic romance between Cathy and Heathcliff.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same" (71).

Wuthering Heights was Emily Brontë's only novel, published after her death and here incorrectly attributed to her sister Charlotte, "the author of Jane Eyre." The misattribution stemmed from the Brontë's London publisher, Thomas Newby, who erroneously believed that the sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—writing under the pen names Currer, Ellis, and Acton, respectively—were in fact one person, an untruth which spread to the novel's American publishers. The true authorship was not revealed to the public until Charlotte's biographical notice was added to the novel's 1850 uniform edition (Smith).

The exceptionally scarce first English edition, published in December 1847, was issued in 2 volumes and correctly attributed to Ellis Bell; it also included an additional volume by Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey, under her pseudonym Acton. The first American edition, only Wuthering Heights, was published on 21 April 1848, simultaneously issued as a single cloth volume (75¢) and as two parts with paper wrappers (25¢ each), with no priority (Smith).

The present copy bears ownership inscriptions from the year of publication: John Henry Williams, who owned the historic Woodlawn house in Nashville, and his daughter Lera, indicating interest from young women readers early on. The volume remained in the Woodlawn library for over a century.

The enduring tale of love, class, possession, and jealousy certainly lives on; its star-studded adaptation earlier this year grossed nearly $214 million worldwide.

REFERENCES

Smith p. 74-75; Symington, p 100; Tinker 389

PROVENANCE

John Henry Williams (ownership inscription to title page, dated "Nashville, Sept 1848") — several contemporary manuscript inscriptions and initials to pastedowns — Lera D. Williams (ownership inscription in pencil to endpapers, "Woodlawn Tennessee"; her name is also listed on the pastedown in a different hand) — Mrs. Dorothy Moore, who purchased Woodlawn and its library in 1922 — gifted to Paul Clements in 1982 — thence by descent to the current owner