Letters

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Collecting Jane Austen: The Letters

Jane Austen to Cassandra, from Sloan St London, 25 April 1811 – British Library

Jane Austen’s Letters are an absolute must-have in your collection. There is nothing like reading these late at night, Jane Austen hovering over your shoulder. Considered rather mundane by the scholarly world when they first appeared – filled as they are with local gossip, fashion and food news, the periodic snide comment about friends and neighbors, and very little about her reading and writing – they have in succeeding years been picked over, and picked over again, to find the minutest insight into Austen and her world.

I find them a pure delight – seeing Austen as she was, mostly in missives to her sister, but also to her brothers, her friends, and publishers – it is like being inside her head at any given moment as she shares her thoughts, observations, and very caustic wit about the goings-on around her – a participant, but always the objective, sometimes judgmental, observer…

One-hundred and sixty letters remain from what has been surmised to have been thousands Austen likely wrote. Cassandra’s “great conflagration” before her own death in 1845 saw the destruction of who knows what else Austen had to say about her own life  – the gaps in dates give the reader such a sense of loss – what happened in those intervening days and years?? – and thus the fabric of novels is made. Of these 160 extant letters, most are scattered around various institutions or remain in private hands – location of each is noted in Le Faye’s exhaustive work.

This example of just her signature sold for over $16,000 in 2017!

So which of the published Letters to have??

Well, a true collector should have them all – you can find a good list in Gilson at G, a mere 8 pages (1982 ed.) with an additional three pages in the revised edition of 1997. While having them all would be a collector’s dream, you at least must have the 4th ed. by Le Faye if you are to understand anything at all about Jane Austen. But here is my list of the basic should-haves:

1. 1817: Henry Austen’s “Biographical Notice” postscript dated 20 December 1817 – Henry included a few extracts from her letters in this notice that appeared in the first edition of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (London: John Murray, 1818).

2. 1870: James Edward Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen (London: Bentley, 1870) – includes extracts and some letters in their entirety.

Frontispiece to the Memoir – the prettified Jane

3. 1884: The Letters of Jane Austen, edited with an introduction and critical remarks by Edward, Lord Brabourne (London: Bentley, 1884). Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, son of Austen’s niece Fanny Knight, published 96 of the letters left to him by his mother – mostly includes letters to Cassandra, but also to Fanny, Anna Lefroy, and the two letters written by Cassandra on Austen’s death.

You can read them all here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letters_of_Jane_Austen_(Brabourne)
or here: https://pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablets.html

For a fascinating history of an Austen family-owned and annotated copy of these Letters, you can read Edith Lank’s account of her copy here:

“Family and Scholarly Annotations in Lord Brabourne’s Letters: Adventures of an Amateur Academic,” by Edith Lank. Persuasions 30 (2008): 76-87 – citation only, full–text unavailable.

But Lank also made a list of all the annotations online in POL 29.1 (2008), which you can read here: http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol29no1/lank.html

4. 1906: Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers, by John Henry Hubback and Edith Charlotte Hubback (London: John Lane, 1906) – this biography of Francis and Charles Austen includes for the first time Jane’s letters to her sailor brothers.

5. 1913: Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, A Family Record, by William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (London: Smith-Elder, 1913) – quoted from all the letters known at that time.

Image: Lasting Words-abebooks

6. 1924: Five Letters from Jane Austen to her Niece Fanny Knight, printed in facsimile (Oxford: Clarendon, 1924) – the full text of the letters from Austen to her niece (they were incompletely printed in Brabourne’s collection.

7. 1925: The Letters of Jane Austen, selected with an introduction by R. Brimley Johnson (London: John Lane, 1925) – a selection of 44 letters from the Brabourne Letters, The Sailor Brothers, and the Austen-Leigh Life.

Chapman, Letters, 1932

8. 1932: Jane Austen’s Letters to Her Sister Cassandra, collected and edited by R. W. Chapman (Oxford: Clarendon, 1932) – the first definitive edition, printed from the actual manuscripts where possible with those letters not accessible taken from Brabourne. There was a 2nd ed. published in 1952 with the addition of 6 more letters but few other changes. Chapman also published a selection of the letters (about one-third) in 1955, and again in 1985 with an introduction by Marilyn Butler.

9. 1981: Five Letters from Jane Austen to Her Sister Cassandra, 1813, with an introduction by David Gilson (Brisbane: Lock’s Press, 1981) – a limited edition of 60 copies.

10. 1990: Jane Austen’s Manuscript Letters in Facsimile, edited by Jo Modert (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1990 – a reproduction of all letters that could be located – the introduction is invaluable and seeing each letter in its original state is fascinating.

11. 1990: My Dear Cassandra…a collection of Jane Austen’s Letters selected and introduced by Penelope Hughes-Hallett (London: Collins and Brown, 1990) – letters selected from the Brabourne Letters, not complete, but it does include many fabulous contemporary illustrations.

12. 1992: “Seven letters from Austen to Francis and Charles” published as a keepsake for those at the JASNA AGM (Alto Loma: Bookhaven Press, 1992) – a miniature booklet limited to 300 copies, these were given to attendees of the 1992 AGM in Santa Monica, CA – the theme was “The Letters, Focusing on Travel and the Sea.”

13. 1995: Jane Austen’s Letters, New Edition, collected and edited by Deirdre Le Faye (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995) – a 3rd edition of the Chapman Letters but with Le Faye’s ceaseless and energetic scholarship into those not fully identified by Chapman as well as the addition of 12 more letters – Le Faye’s notes are mine of information on provenance, current location of each letter (if known), every detail on people and places and allusions are noted; includes biographical and topographical indexes. The lacking full subject indexes found in Chapman were added into the 4th edition (see below)…

There is also a fine publication of this 1995 edition by the Folio Society:

14. 2004: Selected Letters [of Jane Austen], selected with an introduction and notes by Vivien Jones (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004) – based on the 3rd ed. of the letters by Deirdre Le Faye from 1995. You need these paperback editions so you have something to write-in and underline (!).

Selected Letters, intro by Butler (left) and by Jones (right)

14. 2011: Jane Austen’s Letters, 4th ed., collected and edited by Deirdre Le Faye (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011; paperback ed. 2014) – no new letters have been discovered since the 1995 ed, but much additional information has been added regarding Austen’s life and her endless references in the letters. Indexes and notes have been updated, as well as the addition of the all-important Subject Index.

There are other editions out there – I also have the small Oxford World Classics blue hardcover of Chapman Letters with the dust jacket, not often seen – if you should find this, buy it immediately…

[Please note: Our house is being renovated and all my books are packed up – so while some of these images are mine, I had to also mine the internet for others!]

Do you have a favorite edition of the Letters??

©2021 Jane Austen in Vermont
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Jane Austen’s Signature ~ Sells for 12,500 GBP = $16,111 !

Yikes!! ~ Just sold today (7-12-17) at Christies:

AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817). Signature (‘Yours very affec[tionate]ly, Jane’), cut from a letter, n.d.

Price realised GBP 12,500 (Estimate GBP 1,000 – GBP 1,500)

AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817). Signature (‘Yours very affec[tionate]ly, Jane’), cut from a letter, n.d.
22 x 91 mm. [With:] A later envelope, inscribed with provenance notes.

Provenance: Fanny Catherine Knight, Lady Knatchbull (1793-1882, niece of Jane Austen), given to – ‘H.P. Hope’, who, according to the endorsement on the accompanying envelope, dated 15 November 1858, ‘says “Lady K would have sent the entire letter, had it not contained family matters”’.

A tantalising fragment from one of the most elusive hands in English literature: Jane Austen’s signature, cut from one of her letters written to her favourite niece, Fanny Catherine Knight, apparently containing ‘family matters’. Any Austen autograph item is rare at auction: only four have sold in the last twenty years (ABPC/RBH).

2017 Jane Austen in Vermont
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Austen on the Block! ~ Sotheby’s 13 December 2016

A few Austen-related lots shall appear at Sotheby’s London on December 13, 2016: English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations. It is worth browsing. I list below the six Austen items, but please note that the images do not copy from the Sotheby’s website – I have taken pictures from elsewhere (and so noted) to show each lot. 

1816-1stedtitlepage-blackwellsLot 125.  Austen, Jane. Emma: A Novel. John Murray, 1816.

Estimate: £8,000 – 12,000 / $9,814 – 14,720

3 volumes, 12mo, FIRST EDITION, half-titles supplied in facsimile, paper watermarked “1815 | H”, “Budgen 1815” and “J Budgen 1815”, 1p. publisher’s advertisements on verso of the final leaf of text in volume 3, later full calf, gilt border, flat spine gilt, titled in gilt on red labels, volume numbers and dated in gilt on green labels, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, together in collector’s brown slipcase, many leaves strengthened at gutter, some spotting and browning, some repairs to page edges.

Lot 126. Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey: and Persuasian (sic). Johnna-tp-wp Murray, 1818.

Estimate: £6,000 – 8,000 / $7,360 – 9,814

4 volumes, 12mo, FIRST EDITION, half-titles (between the preliminary leaves and first page of text in each volume, as issued), paper watermarked “AP | 1816 | 2”, later full calf, gilt border, flat spine gilt, titled in gilt on red labels, volume numbers and dated in gilt on red and green labels, all edges speckled, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, titles and a few leaves strengthened at gutter, some spotting and browning.
_________

The provenance states: J.C. Fowle, ownership signature on title of each volume – one wonders if there is a connection to the Fowle family that Cassandra was intended to marry into – I find no names in the biographical index in Deirdre Le Faye’s Jane Austen’s Letters (4th ed.) under the Fowle family where a “J. C.” would work…

A snarky (a la Austenblog) aside: I hate it when auction catalogues get it wrong: first there is the Persuasion typo, then this:  ” [Northanger Abbey] was finally brought out after Austen’s death in July 1817 alongside Persuasion, which was completed by Austen over the summer of 1816, shortly before she was forced to stop writing due to ill health.”– so somehow all her efforts on Sanditon have been relegated to the trash heap… especially odd when the next lot is…

Lot 127. [Austen, Jane]. Lefroy, Anna. Autograph Manuscript Continuation of Austen’s Unfinished Novel Sanditon 

Estimate: £20,000 — 30,000 / $24,534 – 36,801

annalefroy-borgantiq2Description: The working manuscript with extensive revisions, mostly with interlinear revisions but partially written on rectos only with revisions and additions on facing versos, two pages entirely cancelled and pasted over with revised text, in three stab-stitched fascicules respectively composed of 8, 11 (lacking final blank) and 8 bifolia, the third with an additional leaf stitched in, with a final section of 11 loose bifolia and one single leaf (the conjugate leaf torn away), on unwatermarked wove paper with indistinct blind stamp in upper left corners, altogether 113 pages, plus blanks, 8vo (180 x 110mm), probably 1840s, light spotting

[with:] Two autograph manuscript reminiscences of Jane Austen: retained copy of a letter to her brother James Edward Austen-Leigh when he was preparing his Memoir of Jane Austen, 9 pages, c.1864; further reminiscences (commencing “I cannot remember distinctly the face of either Aunt…”) in two draft texts, one incomplete, 5 pages; 8vo (180 x 110mm) [also with:] Autograph manuscript note on the manuscript of Sanditon (“I have in my possession a few pages of M.S. the last effort of my dear Aunt’s pen…”), 2 pages, 8vo (205 x 132mm), with a later subscription in the hand of Lefroy’s grand-daughter M. Isabel Lefroy.

Provenance: Sotheby’s, 13 December 1977: “The Property of the great-great nephews of Jane Austen”

[Image: Anna Lefroy, from Borg Antiquarian]

Lot 128. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. George Allen, 1894. Illus. by Hugh Thomson.

Estimate: £3,000 — 5,000 / $3,680 – 6,133pp-allen-1894-pinterest

Description: 8vo, FIRST EDITION THUS, half-title, frontispiece and illustrations by Hugh Thomson, full pictorial teal morocco gilt by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, motif of peacock standing on an urn on upper board with morocco onlays, within a border of peacock feathers, single red jewel for peacock’s eye, spine gilt in compartments with designs of peacock feathers and butterflies, all edges gilt and gauffered, teal and purple morocco doublures, silk endpapers, collector’s slipcase, spine slightly rubbed, front free endpaper coming loose.

The peacock design of this sumptuous binding evokes Hugh Thomson’s design for the original cloth binding, as well as the peacock motif on the title page. The book contains 160 line drawings by Thomson, including headpieces, tailpieces, ornamental initials and the wholly drawn title page, which he began in the autumn of 1893. The book was published in October 1894.

[Image: Pinterest]

Lot 123. [Austen, Jane]. Cup-and-Ball Game (Bilbocatch) – believed to have been Jane Austen’s

Estimate: £20,000 — 30,000 / $24,534 – 36,801

Description: height 175 mm, ball c.60mm diameter, ivory with modern string, possibly English, c.1800, chipped at base, hairline cracks. Cup-and-Ball, or bilbocatch (from the French bilboquet) was a popular domestic game at which Jane Austen excelled. She gives a good indication of the game’s part of daily routine in a letter to Cassandra of 29 October 1809: “We do not want amusement: bilbocatch, at which George is indefatigable; spillikins, paper ships, riddles, conundrums, and cards, with watching the flow and ebb of the river, and now and then a stroll out, keep us well employed; and we mean to avail ourselves of our kind papa’s consideration, by not returning to Winchester till quite the evening of Wednesday.”

This Cup-and-Ball game, which has always remained in the family of Jane Austen, has always been associated with the author including on the rare occasions when it has been publicly exhibited…

SONY DSC

[Image: the same bilbocatch that was on display at the Jane Austen House Museum: https://www.janeausten.co.uk/bilbocatch-old-fashioned-ball-and-cup-fun/ ]

 Lot 124. Austen, Jane. Autograph Letter Signed (“JA”), To Her Sister Cassandra, 8-9 Nov 1800

Estimate: £40,000 – 60,000 / $49,068 – 73,602

ja-lettercorrected-nov1800-blDescription: 4 pages, with interlinear postscript added upside down to first page, 4to, Steventon, 8-9 November 1800, integral address panel and postal marks, seal tear, fold tears, professionally conserved. Jane Austen’s Letters, ed. Deirdre Le Faye (1995), no. 25.

Letter on family affairs and local news, with a charming account of new furniture acquired for the rectory at Steventon, news of Earle Harwood, their neighbour’s son then serving in the army (“…About ten days ago, in cocking a pistol in the guard room at Marcau [St Marcouf], he accidentally shot himself through the Thigh…”) and currently in hospital in Gosport, with a terse account of a ball attended by her brother James when visiting Earle Harwood (“…It was in general a very ungenteel one, & there was hardly a pretty girl in the room…”), describing a quiet evening spent with friends in a neighbouring village (“…Sometimes we talked & sometimes we were silent; I said two or three amusing things, & Mr [James] Holder made a few infamous puns…”), Also mentioning the state of health of Harris Bigg-Wither, whose proposal of marriage Jane was to accept briefly in 1802, with three postscripts, the first including news of their brother Charles’ capture of a Turkish ship and the second, written in the evening, describing the dramatic effects of a storm earlier in the day (“…I was sitting alone in the dining room, when an odd kind of crash startled me – in a moment afterwards it was repeated; I then went to the window, which I reached just in time to see the last of our two highly valued Elms descend into the Sweep!!!!!…”).

ja-letter2-nov1800-bl

[Image: this letter is on the British Library website and has been on loan to them since 1936]

[All text excepting my commentary is from the Sotheby’s catalogue]

Happy bidding!

C2016 Jane Austen in Vermont
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A Journey through Jane Austen’s Letters

I have read many of Austen’s letters through the years, and certainly know the majority of quotes that are repeated over and over…but I am finally committing myself to going through each letter in chronological order and reading through all the accompanying notes and references ( my source and Essential Austen title: Jane Austen’s Letters, collected and edited by Deirdre Le Faye, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, 1997)…. and I invite you all to take this journey with me, one letter at a time, one day at a time. 

So often these letters, and the sentences or words from them, are quoted out of context, and I feel compelled to make some sense of it all, to go back to the original source and get a feel for what Austen was really saying.  There are so many gaps in the letters, either from Cassandra’s choice to edit and / or destroy many of her sister’s writings, or because the sisters were not apart and hence no need to write (and of course there are only a few letters from Cassandra herself, and because Austen often refers back to a received letter, and with her constant comments on her sister’s writing abilities and humor, the reader is saddened by this loss.)

There are also many primary and secondary sources on the letters and I will discuss these periodically (see also the Letters Page, which I will continually add to), but I think I better just start the process and let it evolve from there.  I encourage you to comment, suggest sources, offer suggestions or interpretation, so please visit often and participate.  For those of you who know the letters backwards and forwards, and for those just discovering them, please take this journey with me.  I think all of us might learn something new along the way.  I know I already have….

This will be the format: 

  • letter number
  • date
  • sender (their location) / recipient (their location)
  • location of letter today
  • synopsis; quotes of import; comment

So today I start with Letter No. 1:

  • January 9 – 10 (Sat, Sun) 1796
  • Jane (Steventon) to Cassandra (Kintbury, Newbury [Rev. Fowles home])
  • Original MS untraced

 This is Austen’s first documented letter and one of the most quoted.  It is here that Jane writes of her attachment to Tom Lefroy and she refers to him often in this letter…”I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved.  Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together.”  She tells of the balls- “we had an exceedingly good ball last night”, who she danced with (Warren, Charles Watkins, and “fighting hard” to escape John Lyford), commenting on Miss Heathcote (“[she] is pretty, but not near so handsome as I expected”), and the many references to friends that we meet again and again in her letters.  We read of her latest fashion thoughts, the silk stockings she cannot afford but the white gloves and pink persian (silk) she can, and much on her brother Charles and brother Henry and his latest plan to obtaining a lieutenancy.

The letter ends with another lengthy reference to Tom Lefroy:  “he has but one fault…his morning coat is a great deal too light.  He is a great admirer of Tom Jones, and therefore he wears the same coloured clothes, I imagine, which he did when he was wounded.”

So in this first letter,  (Jane was 20 years old writing this letter on Cassandra’s 23rd birthday and the letter opens with “In the first place I hope you will live twenty-three years longer”)  we are introduced into Austen’s life, her family and friends, her likes and dislikes, and her biting wit, her poking fun at others and so very often herself.  Her letters to her sister were entertainment for both of them when they were apart, and in just these few pages we are drawn into this late 18-century world, with all its domestic goings-on, and we are glad to be in such company.  These letters are a veritable feast!