George Smith, Prince of Publishers, and William Smith Williams

Abstract

The first part of this essay describes the background of George Smith, his meeting with Charlotte and Anne Brontë, and the connections that developed between him and Charlotte. Smith's kindness and shrewd financial advice to the sisters are recorded, as are the nature of his feelings toward her; aspects of his career; his generosity to writers and artists; his happy marriage; his founding of the Cornhill Magazine ; and his creation of the Dictionary of National Biography. The second part describes William Smith Williams's background and his engagement as reader to the firm of Smith, Elder, and Company. It was his refusal of The Professor, and his advice that a three-volume novel would be welcomed, that led to the publication of Jane Eyre. Charlotte's first meeting with Williams, her appreciation of his kindness, his sensitive response to the death of Emily Brontë and the illness of Anne Brontë, and Charlotte's eventual withdrawal from his kind attentions are also considered through references to their correspondence.