Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | February | 18
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Friday 18th Feb 2005.
The tragic final year in the life of one of the country's greatest authors is being told through letters, manuscripts and photographs.
`Currer Bell is Dead' charts how, within nine months of marriage, Charlotte Brontë had died.
Thousands of fans are expected to make the pilgrimage to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the literary shine to Charlotte and her sisters, in Haworth, to see the exhibition.
It is one of a number of events being held throughout the year to mark the 150th anniversary of Charlotte's death.
The Post Office is due to issue a set of commemorative stamps later this month.
And there will be a wreath laying ceremony in Westminster Abbey, and in Haworth Parish Church, on March 31, the actual anniversary of her death.
Charlotte is the author of the classic novel Jane Eyre, one of the top 20 most popular reads in the country.
Her books were all published under the pseudonym Currer Bell until her death while pregnant with her first child, at the age of 38, in March 1855.
Ann Dinsdale, the Brontë Parsonage librarian, said: "We think this is going to be a good year and expect lots and lots of people."
Displays at the museum had been designed to bring to life the events leading up to her death at the parsonage.
"They will reveal her thoughts and emotions about marriage, life at the parsonage and ultimately the illness which led to her death," said Ann.
The items include a letter, faintly written, and believed to be her last, in which she praises the kindness and support of her husband to her friend Ellen Nussey.
Charlotte was married to Haworth curate Arthur Bell Nicholls in June 1854.
By then she had lost her two sisters, Emily, aged 30, author of Wuthering Heights, in December 1848 and Anne, aged 29, author of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, in 1849, and wayward brother Branwell, in 1848, aged 31.
Picture shows a mourning card from Charlotte's funeral, a lock of her hair, a bracelet made of her hair and a brooch containing it and the last letter she wrote.
The other exhibits in the exhibition include three volumes of Jane Eyre, three volume of Villette, a ring containing Charlotte and her father's hair, spectacles, a quill pen used by Charlotte and an album of her pressed ferns
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