1847 Williams called Smith's attention to a manuscript novel entitled 'The Professor,' which had been sent to the firm by an author writing under the name of 'Currer Bell.' The manuscript showed signs of having vainly sought the favour of other publishing houses. Smith and his assistant recognised the promise of the work, but neither thought it likely to be a successful publication. While refusing it, however, they encouraged the writer in kindly and appreciative terms to submit another effort. The manuscript of 'Jane Eyre' arrived at Cornhill not long afterwards. Williams read it and handed it to Smith. The young publisher was at once fascinated by its surpassing power, and purchased the copyright out of hand. He always regarded the manuscript, which he retained, as the most valued of his literary treasures. He lost no time in printing it, and in 1848 the reading world recognised that he had introduced to its notice a novel of abiding fame. Later in 1848 'Shirley,' by 'Currer Bell,' was also sent to Cornhill. So far 'Currer Bell' had conducted the correspondence with the firm as if the writer were a man, but Smith shrewdly suspected that the name was a woman's pseudonym. His suspicions were confirmed in the summer of 1848, when Charlotte Brontë, accompanied by her sister Anne, presented herself without warning at Cornhill in order to explain some misunderstanding which she thought had arisen in the negotiations for the publication of 'Shirley.' From the date of the authoress's shy and unceremonious introduction of herself to him at his office desk until her premature death some seven years later, Smith's personal relations with her were characterised by a delightfully unaffected chivalry. On their first visit to Cornhill he took Miss Brontë and her sister to the opera the same evening. Smith's mother made their acquaintance next day, and they twice dined at her residence, then at 4 Westbourne Place. Miss Brontë frankly confided to a friend a day or two later her impressions of her publisher-host. 'He is a firm, intelligent man of business, though so young [he was only twenty-four]; bent on getting on, and I think desirous of making his way by fair, honourable means. He is enterprising, but likewise cool and cautious. Mr. Smith is a practical man.'[1]
On this occasion the sisters stayed in London only three days. But next year, in November 1849, Miss Brontë was the guest of Smith's mother at Westbourne Place for nearly three weeks. She visited the London sights under Smith's guidance; he asked Thackeray, whose personal acquaintance he does not seem to have made previously, to dine with him in order to satisfy her ambition of meeting the great novelist, whose work aroused in her the warmest enthusiasm. On returning to Haworth in December she wrote to Smith: 'Very easy is it to discover that with you to gratify others is to gratify yourself; to serve others is to afford yourself a pleasure. I suppose you will experience your share of ingratitude and encroachments, but do not let them alter you. Happily they are the less likely to do this because you are half a Scotchman, and therefore must have inherited a fair share of prudence to qualify your generosity, and of caution to protect your benevolence.'[2]
- ↑ 'Cornhill Magazine,' December 1900; cf. Gaskell's 'Life,' ed. Shorter, p. 368 n.
- ↑ Gaskell's 'Life,' ed. Shorter, p. 433.
