Emily Brontë

Emily Jane Brontë was born 30 July 1818, the fifth of six children in a Yorkshire parsonage. Her mother died when she was three; her father, the curate of Haworth, taught her at home. She and her siblings invented elaborate imaginary worlds - Glass Town, Angria, Gondal - filling journals with their stories. Charlotte described her as solitary, strong-willed, nonconforming, devoted to nature and animals. Apart from brief stints at school and a stretch in Brussels as a student and teacher, Emily spent her life at Haworth: helping with chores, playing piano, reading. In 1847 she and her sisters published a poetry collection under male pen names; hers was Ellis Bell. That same year Wuthering Heights appeared under the same pseudonym. Critics recoiled. She died of tuberculosis on 19 December 1848, thirty years old, having published one novel that would become a cornerstone of English literature long after she was gone.