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A rare first edition of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë sold today at Bonhams for £114,000- more than double its pre-sale estimate- in the Printed Books and Manuscripts sale at 101 New Bond Street, London. The book was bought in the room by the Antiquarian Book Dealer Robert Kirkman on behalf of his UK private client, who is a keen collector of Brontë works.

Only three first editions of Wuthering Heights have been sold at auction in the last 35 years and today’s price is thought to be one of the highest prices paid for a copy.

The vendor of the book, Miss Anne Reid, decided to sell the first edition, which had been in the family for four generations, to help finance her long cherished dream of becoming an artist. Miss Reid, who has just started studying at the London Art Academy, was given the book by her grandfather when she was a child. She had no idea of the value of the book and was overwhelmed when she discovered how much it could fetch.

All three of the Brontë sisters wrote compulsively from an early age, inspired by the Yorkshire moors to compose short stories and poems. Charlotte Brontë once described how she and her sisters had always clung to “the dream of one day becoming authors”, a dream that all three were to fulfil. It seems fitting that 160 years after it was first published, Wuthering Heights has been sold to help another woman realise her ambitions.

Unfortunately Emily would never see her own name in print. When Wuthering Heights was first published she decided to disguise her true identity and took on the male pseudonym, Ellis Bell. The authoress was acutely aware of the prejudices she faced as a female writer and she rightly felt that the book would be unjustly criticised if readers were aware of her gender.

Nevertheless, Emily Brontë, like all the Brontë sisters, firmly believed in the importance of educating women. Both Emily and Charlotte attended a school in Brussels for a short time and later decided to open a school at their own home, although the enterprise was unsuccessful due to a lack of pupils. If Emily were alive today, it is likely that she would have approved of Miss Reid’s reason for selling the first edition of Wuthering Heights.

Images copyright Bonhams.

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