Patrick Bronte: Father of Genius [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING] Green, Dudley [Fine] [Hardcover]

Description

Fine unread condition textured black linen boards with gold spine lettering contained in a very good condition color illustrated dust jacket. Includes Foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury; Preface; Acknowledgments and Thanks; Format and Conventions; List of Illustrations; Preliminary Page Quotes; Epilogue; Notes; Patrick Bronte: a Chronology, 1777-1861; Appendices consisting of: I. The Published Writings of Patrick Bronte; II. Mrs. Bronte's Nurse; III. Three Letters from Patrick Bronte to the Master-General of the Ordnance; IV. The Ecclesiastical Census: Sunday 30 March 1851; V. Servants at the Parsonage; VI. Patrick Bronte's Curates; VII. Two Letters of Patrick Bronte which have recently come to light; VIII. The Article in Sharpe's London Magazine June 1855: (i) Extract from the article; (ii) Extracts from Mrs. Gaskell's letter to Catherine Winkworth, 25 August 1850; (iii) Extract from Charles Dickens' letter to Frank Smedley, 5 May 1855; IX. Mrs. Gaskell's portrayal of Patrick Bronte in her Life of Charlotte Bronte; Select Bibliography and Index. Illustrated with a section of black-and-white photographic plates. ""Patrick Bronte (1777-1861) is known as the father of the famous Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, three of Victorian England's greaatest novelists, but he was also a fascinating man in his own right. Born into poverty in Ireland, he gained entry to St. John's College, Cambridge, and after ordination into the Church of England served for forty years as perpetual curate of Haworth. Here he campaigned for a school and for improvements to the water supply, and wrote to the local press on important issues of the day. He was an able preacher and a published poet and, after the early death of his wife required him to bring up his choldren alone, he showed himself a caring father. Since the unsympathetic portrayal of him in Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte, however, he has generally been regarded as a remote, eccentric and forbidding figure. Using documentary evidence to throw new light on this 'father of genius' and to contradict Mrs. Gaskell's depiction of him, Dudley Green's biography is the first major account of Patrick's life for more than forty years, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in the Brontes."" - from the inner front jacket flap.