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Scholars often assume that the publication of Poems of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846) was a disappointing start for the Brontës. After all, the first edition sold just two copies, and the second edition sold fewer than 300 copies over the next five years.1/7 #TasteofRSVP
Yet when Victorian practices of reprinting are taken into account, it becomes clear that the Brontës’ verse reached a much larger audience than has hitherto been assumed. Throughout the century, editors repurposed the Brontës’ verse in diverse periodicals and newspapers.2/7
To trace the reprinting history of the Brontës’ poems, I searched for the first line of each poem in 6 online periodical archives. I discovered that the Brontës’ poems were reprinted 407 times, 1846-99: 182, 139, and 86 reprintings for Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, respectively.3/7
I entered these re-printings on a spreadsheet & charted them on a graph. Spikes in periodical reprinting correspond with the publication Poems (1846 & 1848), The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857), & the 1st ed. of CB’s The Professor, which included the poems (1856 & 1860).4/7
‘Evening Solace’ was by far Charlotte Brontë’s most often-reprinted poem. First published in the 1846 edition of Poems, it was reprinted fifty-three times between 1849 and 1853, including in Chambers’s Journal & the Weekly Dispatch, both of which had circulations ~ 60,000.5/7
Editors sometimes changed poem titles to suit their needs. Littell’s Living Age reprinted ‘Evening Solace’ on 17 Oct. 1857 as ‘Evening Hours’. In a culture of reprinting, poems were viewed less as stable works of art than as dynamic texts subject to creative adaptation.6/7
As more periodicals are digitized, our understanding of the reprinting history of the Brontë’s verse will expand accordingly, demonstrating its enduring resonance and adaptability within a rapidly changing new media environment.7/7
