Reduced price of Kindle edition until Easter

I have reduced the price of the Kindle edition for the period up until Easter in case there are Brontë lovers, stuck at home at the moment, who are quite interested in William Smith Williams, but not interested enough to buy the paperback at £9.95!

My purpose in writing the book was to get William’s story better known. In this, I was thrilled to have had an article accepted by Brontë Studies, which has now been downloaded over 100 times; my blog on the article has had 900 views. 

Here is the link to Amazon. 

William Smith Williams and Women

William Smith Williams was a son of the 19th century, and so we may expect to see in him attitudes from a society where women are viewed as second class. Is this though what the evidence reveals? In my writing of Charlotte Bronte’s Devotee (CBD) I came across quite a lot which sheds helpful light.

His mother died when he was aged ten, or thereabouts. He had an older brother, my great grandfather. His father was in business with a woman, Mary Nethersole the widow of the former owner of their wax and tallow chandler’s business. He had an aunt, Rebecca, but I found no evidence of contact with her. He had an extended family in Oxfordshire; certainly one maiden aunt, great-aunt Susanna, is mentioned. The truth is we know little of his childhood until he came within the embrace of the Hill family at Broxbourne.  The father, Francis Hill, was a rather austere school master and cleric. He and his wife had four daughters, one of whom, Margaret, William married and another became the wife of  William’s close friend, Charles Wells. I see the close relationship with the Hill family underscored when William and Margaret return to Broxbourne for the baptisms of their first three children. They became William’s family.

During his apprenticeship, William met John Keates and his poem about Keats, written after his death, perhaps offers ambiguity in its import. William writes ‘Mixt admiration fills my heart, not can I tell which most to love – the Poet or the Man’. (CBD p.30.) A decade later, William was in a social circle with radicals George Lewes and Thornton Hunt, and there are suggestions of a somewhat alternative way of life in the form of open marriage, certainly enjoyed by Lewes until he became the long term partner of George Eliot. (CBD p.66.)

We know most about William from the letters Charlotte Bronte wrote to him. Although she was writing as Currer Bell to disguise her gender, I believe that, from early on, William suspected that she was a woman. I infer from her letters that he treated her in every sense as an equal, unlike George Lewes whose laboured attention to her gender caused her great annoyance. (CBD p.140.) Women move to the centre stage when he writes to her about his four daughters, most particularly the profession they should follow, since he clearly does not want them to be beholden to a husband. He wants for them, independence.

There is perhaps a contrast when William thinks of his wife, and that he observes the absence of close friendship. (CBD p.139.) It may be that Margaret didn’t have close friends, or perhaps that William was too busy to notice. We do know that Margaret had strong family relationships as evidenced by letters to sisters in New Zealand. William would have experienced nothing of this kind.

We see William having professional relationships with a number of women. Mrs Lynn Linton was critical of him, perhaps for not publishing her manuscript. (CBD p.66) Elizabeth Gaskell looked to him for reassurance. (CBD p.180) He had a portrait of George Eliot on the wall of his office. (CBD p.184). In 1874 Millicent Fawcett wrote to William to ask his advice on publishing her novel, Janet Doncaster, asking whether she should publish it anonymously given her other writing on Political Economy. (CBD p.210)

Possibly the most difficult area comes with John Ruskin for whom William published his later writing on political economy and education, particularly the education of women. It is here where we confront attitudes that are so far adrift from contemporary thinking that it is difficult to get near. Having said this, Ruskin was advocating the education of women and not just for the home. (CBD p.205) It was only that it was education different to that available for men.

We can finally look at William’s legacy for evidence. (CBD ch12.) Jane Eyre shines bright at his belief in talent irrespective of gender. His youngest daughter was a celebrated and well regarded concert soprano. His eldest daughter was wife to a celebrated portrait painter Lowes Dickinson and mother to equally celebrated sons, Sir Arthur, an accountant, and Goldie one of the thinkers behind the League of Nations. For Goldie, his mother was the perfect woman. William’s two other daughters lived their adult lives as independent women, one a widow and the other divorced, but both gainfully employed.

Margaret Dickinson

Reviews of Charlotte Bronte's Devotee

Amber Adams, editor of Brontë Studies wrote a lovely review in the October 2020 edition volume 45 issue 4. You can read it by following this link, or by accessing through the members area of the Bronte Society website. 

Sharon Wright writes on Twitter:

I enjoyed this illuminating biography of Charlotte Brontë’s publisher & friend William Smith Williams. Philip Hamlyn Williams @WSWilliams1 presents his great, great uncle as an erudite, liberal & likeable man at the heart of the 19th-century 
book world. Fascinating. 

Patsy Stoneman writing in the Bronte Gazette

Karen Walker writes on Facebook:

I have just finished reading my copy of Charlotte Bronte's devotee, What a thoroughly enjoyable and learned read. Lovely to read the correspondence between William and Charlotte. Absolutely brilliant book, would HIGHLY recommend it. Also many thanks to Philip for my signed copy.

Brontë biographer, Rebecca Fraser, wrote:

“The mysterious publisher William  Smith Williams has always been the unsung hero of the Brontë Story. Not only did he discover Jane Eyre, he was Charlotte Brontë’s friend and supporter. In a fascinating book Smith Williams is at last brought to life thanks to the forensic skills of his great, great nephew.” Rebecca Fraser

An 'Amazon Customer' posted this review:

I found this a very readable book, one that I could relax with. 
It was fascinating to learn how closely involved William Smith Williams had been in bringing the talents of "Currer Bell" (Charlotte Bronte) to the British public. Reading about the difficult task of being a Reader for the publishers, whereby he always gave constructive criticism of books which he had not recommended for publication as well as for those which he had recommended, made me realise how many, many hours he must have spent with huge numbers of manuscripts. To have been really honest with Charlotte Bronte about her subsequent books after the success of "Jane Eyre" would undoubtedly have been very hard.
This book, while focussing mainly on his relationship with Charlotte Bronte, shows how involved he also was with other well known authors such as Ruskin and Thackeray. It gives the modern reader a snapshot of life in early Victorian England and provides a mine of information about Smith William's direct descendants and relatives, food for thought in an age fascinated by family trees.

Lily's Mum posted on Amazon:

A delightful and well-researched book on a fascinating man
I struggle to think of anyone who wouldn't be interested in this story because so many people seem to be connected to him. Do you have an interest in the Bronte family? Ruskin? Rossetti? Thackeray? Lawrence Alma-Tadema? George Eliot? Mrs Gaskell? All crop up in this tale of publishing and friendships, with a healthy dose of sudden death and dodgy marriages thrown in to boot.

I love how much detail there is in here. I was tickled by the fact that in the early years of the nineteenth century, the road between Westminster and London was beset with highwaymen so MPs had to travel in groups for their own safety. From the first, Williams was a man of connections, counting John Keats as a schoolmate and from his first foray into publishing could count Thomas Carlyle amongst his friends with correspondence from Dickens.

Of course, it's for his friendship with Currer Bell (or Charlotte Bronte, as she is more usually known) that we acknowledge Williams today. His recognition and encouragement of Charlotte's talent from the first builds a close and lasting friendship. Reading her letters to him (treasured and preserved by the family) are a treat and make you wish that his letters had also been kept. Indeed, the one we have reminded me of the treatment of the one letter from Fanny Cornforth quoted in Paull F. Baum's book of Rossetti's letter to Fanny. The Bronte Encyclopedia suggested that this letter from Williams to Charlotte showed Williams to have 'no great skill in writing and that the ambitions which frustrated him so were based more on fantasy than fact' which is a sweeping statement for one letter, especially one written on the occasion of Emily Bronte's death. It is obvious from Charlotte's responses to his other letters over many years that his letters brought her joy.

One of the unexpected joys of the book are Charlotte's comments on being a woman at the time, many of them offered while Williams still (on the face of it) believed he was corresponding with a gentleman. On the subject of female further education, Charlotte was enthusiastic - 'Whenever I have seen families of daughters sitting waiting to be married, I have pitied them from my heart.' I absolutely loved the comments she got back from Poet Laureate Robert Southey after sending him some of her poems - 'Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be ... the daydreams in which you habitually indulge are likely to induce a distempered state of mind.' Well, he's a keeper.

This is an easy read because the tone of the narrative is so friendly and conversational from a writer who obviously loves his subject and wants you to love it too. I feel I know figures in literary history just that bit better after reading this and my opinion of Charlotte Bronte has risen greatly. I knew pretty much nothing of Williams beyond his part in Bronte's publishing life but found his achievements as fascinating as his personal life. The friendship he shared with Charlotte was not all plain sailing especially with Mrs Williams (at least in the perception of Charlotte) and one quote from Charlotte on friendship really struck a chord with me:

'In the matter of friendship I have observed that disappointment here arises chiefly - not from liking our friend too well - or thinking of them too highly - but rather from an over-estimate of their liking for and opinion of us.'
In these times of on-line, written friendships, I find that to be unfortunately true and wise words indeed.

You can find this review  also on the blog of Kirstie Stonell Walker, author and student of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 

Cheryl Pivac posted this on Amazon New Zealand. Cheryl is descended from William's wife's family and let me have some wonderful family letters:

"Don't just read this book once ~ Read it TWICE

Some books you read once... this book I read twice.

The second time I got even more from this book a wonderful insight into a truly gentle man of great wisdom and ideals.

Philip has made William Smith Williams come alive within the pages of this book. Well done!"

Fran Manning is William's great (3x) granddaughter and she wrote this:

“Thank you so much for transporting me back into the lives of our family and their friends, and into the streets and homes of mid Victorian London and to Haworth Parsonage. As a result I now feel that I  know my 3 x Great Grandfather, his family and some of his friends as real people. I can also feel the environment in which they lived and the passions that drove them in their daily lives. 

The extensive research, attention to detail, entertaining and reader-friendly style, and honesty in reporting made it a wonderful read. I found the skilful connections you made of events and people at a particular time to their appearances in previous or later chapters very helpful”. 

The Library of Bishop Grosseteste University has included the book in their display for the Lincoln Book Festival 2019.

PwC mailing to former partners

John Ruskin revisited

A fascinating reassessment of the importance of John Ruskin has come in two excellent books published this year.

Suzanne Fagence Cooper has approached the subject from her art history background. To See Clearly: Why Ruskin Matters is a beautiful, intriguing book.

Andrew Hill is a Financial Times Journalist and, in Ruskland: How John Ruskin Shapes Our World, looks at Ruskin’s thinking on political economy. I am sure William would have approved.

The books also tell, amongst much more, of the influence of Ruskin on Charlotte Bronte. This influence came via William Smith Williams.

I have charted John Ruskin’s relationship with William Smith Williams who worked closely in the 1860s, editing The Selections of the Writings of John Ruskin published by Smith, Elder & Co in 1861.

http://www.williamsmithwilliams.co.uk/2019/03/william-smith-williams-and-john-ruskin.html

Charlotte Brontë's Devotee - the published book

“The mysterious publisher William  Smith Williams has always been the unsung hero of the Brontë Story. Not only did he discover Jane Eyre, he was Charlotte Brontë’s friend and supporter. In a fascinating book Smith Williams is at last brought to life thanks to the forensic skills of his great, great nephew.” Rebecca Fraser

The book tells the revealing story of Charlotte Brontë’s relationship with William Smith Williams who, as the Reader at her publisher Smith, Elder & Co, recognised her genius. But, who was he? William was a radical Victorian, friend to many of the giants of 19th century art and literature: Thackeray, Thomas Carlyle, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and the Rossettis. Through him we gain an insight into the world of publishing, the art and science of lithography and the controversial thinking of John Ruskin on women’s education, politics and economics. He was a family man and, with his wife Margaret, produced a line of remarkable progeny.

Whence had he come and wither did he go? Charles Dickens and George Meredith were also publishers’ Readers and their stories are well known, but what of William Smith Williams?

I was spurred on my quest by words from a letter his brother in law, Robert Hill, wrote on his death: ‘There were complementary notices of his death in nearly all the papers. Nobody could have been more universally beloved or respected than he was.’ I read the obituaries and they were indeed full of praise and affection. One sentence in the Publishers Circular in particular caught my attention: ‘The truth is that Mr Williams’ previous education had fitted him to be a judge of good work, and he was singularly fair and unbiased.’ I had to discover what this ‘previous education’ had been, but also what else he had done to merit such fulsome praise and, indeed, who were those people who loved and respected him.

I found a true Renaissance man as at home with art as with literature, with science as with politics. His childhood had been spent in the crowded courts bordering London’s Strand. He was orphaned at age fourteen and then largely self educated. He was an apprentice publisher and then a lithographer before joining Smith, Elder. He wrote a poem in praise of John Keats and presented a paper to the Society of Arts on Lithography. Following his all too few years of friendship with Charlotte Bronte, he mentored many other writers. One such, Frederick Wicks, wrote this if him:

‘Thrusting back his massive growth of white hair, he would clasp his hands nervously in thought before delivering his opinion, and then would follow in short, pregnant sentences a perfect flood of light upon the matter in hand. He was never content with general commendation and approval, but always gave good, sound reasons and sufficient cause for all he thought. Among the many pregnant phrases that fell to my lot was one of extraordinary value as a check to the exuberance of youth. “You need,” he said, “restraint – not that which checks, but that which guides the literary faculty.”’

He edited the 1861 Selections of the Writings of John Ruskin and then supported Ruskin in the publication of his works on political economy. He is buried in Kensal Green cemetery with his wife, one son and two daughters and son in law celebrated portrait painter, Cato Lowes Dickinson under a memorial designed by AC Gill. His daughter, Anna, was a celebrated concert soprano. One grandson, Sir Arthur Lowes Dickinson, was a founding partner of Price Waterhouse in the USA, another, Goldie Lowes Dickinson, was one of the thinkers behind the League of Nations.

About the author

Following a career with Price Waterhouse and in the charity sector, I was awarded a First Class Degree in Humanities by Exeter University and then an MA in Professional Writing by University College Falmouth. My first two books were published by The History Press and a third is in progress. An article on his research into William Smith Williams was published by Brontë Studies in April 2019.

The book

The book is available from Amazon by following this link and also  from the Brontë Society. I would also be happy to supply the book direct.

The printer’s proof

To handle the proof copy of a book is a surprise and a delight. All those years of research, thought and composition finding a material form. This book, though, is self-published, since, whilst a number of publishers and indeed competition judges liked it, they did not think it sufficiently commercial. We shall see! 

Self-publishing has necessitated paying a proof reader, happily a very good one; and, as I say in the introduction, any errors are mine alone. Self-publishing has also meant that I could not see the overall design until now. I am pleasantly surprised. I hope you are.

It has been a long time in the making. It was 2006 when Norman Penty contacted me because my name appeared in the family tree he had researched of William Smith Williams's family. Over the intervening years, I explored the family further. It was in Paris, in a hotel near the Pantheon where I read the chapters on William Smith Williams in Juliet Barker's The Brontës, when I began to realise just how little was known about this significant man in the Brontë story. This spurred me on.

I researched further and, as I say in the introduction, found his brother-in-law Robert Hill's letter telling of the obituaries of William. I loved my visits to the archives at Haworth, Lancaster and Edinburgh, finding in each the sort of gem that makes you want to shout out - not something approved of in archives. I made contact with William’s relatives in Australia and New Zealand and they let me have family letters and photographs. Brontë biographer and former chair of The Brontë Society, Rebecca Fraser, read, liked and offered helpful suggestions to improve my draft. I was invited to write a paper on my research for Brontë Studies, and thoroughly enjoyed my correspondence with its wonderful editor Amber Adams.

I will be speaking about Charlotte Brontë’s Devotee at the Lincoln Book Festival in September.

The book is now available to buy on Amazon in paperback and Kindle edition.

Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Bronte Studies

William Smith Williams: Charlotte Brontë’s First Devotee

Below is the link to an article I wrote for Bronte Studies. I have since published a book, Charlotte Bronte’s Devotee, telling the whole of what I discovered about this fascinating man. The article is but the bare bones. The book is available to buy

The article explores some of what is known of William Smith Williams, the reader at Smith, Elder and Company, who discovered and mentored Charlotte Brontë. It traces his childhood, education and early career. His interest in art was perhaps as great as that in literature and the article explores a number of his writings on the subject. His correspondence with Charlotte Brontë is well known; less familiar is his relationship with John Ruskin on which this article seeks to shed some light. It will show that William Smith Williams was very much a Renaissance man who attracted both friendship and respect from many of the nineteenth century’s leading writers, artists and thinkers.

A preface to the article explains my interest:

Philip Hamlyn Williams’s interest in William Smith William stems from his irritation that William Smith Williams seemed to be dismissed by many Brontë biographers. He holds an MA in Professional Writing and in 2008, as a mature student, was awarded a First Class Degree in Humanities from the University of Exeter. He, previously, had pursued careers in professional services, principally as a partner in accountants Price Waterhouse and the not-for-profit sector. He is the author of two books on the how the British army was supplied in the two World Wars: War on Wheels and Ordnance, both published by The History Press, Gloucester, England.

Correspondence to: Philip Hamlyn Williams. Email: philhwilliams@gmail.com. Website:  www.philwilliamswriter.co.uk.

The article, published by Taylor & Francis in Bronte on 18 March 2019, is available online:

The Kindle edition of the book is available by following this link 

Charlotte Bronte's Devotee? - a first draft

I mark 31 August 2018 as the day I sent off a first draft of my biography of William Smith Williams.

It has been a labour of love, a quest for the man behind Charlotte Brontë’s description of him: 'a faded Tom Dixon.' (He could hardly have been less so).


I was helped in my search by the genealogical work carried out by Mr Norman Penty and written up in his booklet, The Discovery of Charlotte Brontë William Smith Williams 1800-1875 – a Genealogical Quest. In 2006 Mr Penty contacted me and told me of the family tree that he had painstakingly researched. He contacted me because my name appears in the tree as the great grand son of WSW’s brother. The other huge source of help was from the late Margaret Smith’s edition of the letters of Charlotte Brontë. I visited the Brontë archive at Haworth, the Ruskin archive at Lancaster and the Smith Elder archive in Edinburgh, discovering in each place true gems. I researched extensively on line and in libraries. WSW's descendants in New Zealand and Australia provided a much need family perspective.

I found a true nineteenth century Renaissance man as at home with art as with literature, and with politics as with science. The question mark in the suggested title is deliberate. He is known as Charlotte Brontë’s mentor, a task he carried out with devotion. However, whilst she may have been the most prominent, she was very far from the only writer to whom WSW devoted his energies and very particular skills. 

The draft is divided into twelve chapters:

1 Childhood
2 Apprenticeship
3 The Hullmandel Years
4 The House of Smith, Elder & Co
5 The Bronte Years – Jane Eyre
6 The Bronte Years – Friendship
7 The Bronte Years – Art and Tragedy
8 The Bronte Years – Shirley, The Cornhill Parcels and Education
9 The Bronte Years – Villette, A Cooling Relationship
10 The Cornhill and Other Authors
11 The Ruskin Years

12 Home Life and Legacy

I now begin my search for a suitable publisher.

Charlotte Bronte's First Devotee

The title of this post is my current working title for my biography of William Smith Williams, with the strap line: Who was this man, William Smith Williams, who discovered and nurtured Charlotte Bronte?

The name, William Smith Williams, will strike a chord with readers of Bronte biographies. He was the reader at Smith Elder & Co who first spotted Charlotte’s genius. He then nurtured her talent, as is evident from the one hundred or so letters she wrote to him in the course of her short career.

But who was he? Whence had he come and whither did he go? A passage from a letter his nephew, Robert Hill, wrote on his death urges exploration: ‘There were complementary notices of his death in nearly all the papers. Nobody could have been more universally beloved or respected than he was.’

I read the obituaries and they were indeed full of praise and affection for this quiet man. The Athenaeum wrote: ‘His literally taste was excellent, and he had great powers of discernment. His judgement and his opinion regarding the works was very highly valued, more especially by young authors.’ One sentence, in the Publishers Circular, in particular caught my attention: ‘The truth is that Mr Williams’ previous education had fitted him to be a judge of good work, and he was singularly fair and unbiased.’ I had to discover what this ‘previous education’ may have been.

My researches are bearing fruit and I hope will appear in an article for Bronte Studies and will be part of a biography which I am seeking to publish.

William and Australia

Ellen and Margaret Williams, with thanks to Cheryl Pivac

In the early 1850s William's eldest son, William Frank (known as Frank), emigrated to New South Wales with some guidance from Elizabeth Gaskell then a friend of Charlotte Bronte. He married in Sydney in 1855 and he and his wife Ellen had a son and a daughter. There is reason to believe that Frank died before his father (1875).

Norman Penty, who did so much research into William's family tree, traced Frank's progeny to Mark Wasson and Stephen and Kent Warner who live in Sydney. If anyone knows them, I would love to make contact.

The only other Australian connection I have come across is that William read Catherine Spence's Clara Morison but declined it with a letter similar to that he sent to Charlotte Bronte on reading The Professor.

POSTSCRIPT

Thank you so much, Australian cousins, for getting in touch. The picture in filling in a fascinating way.

William and Kentish Town

William moved from Paddington to Harmood Road in Kentish Town at about the time of the Great Reform Act of 1832.

They lived first at 25 and then at 31. I visited there on Saturday, only to find that those numbers now attached to modern town houses. I had hoped to see number 31 a step up in the world for the Williams family. Happily over the road the original late Georgian houses remain and are wonderful.

I mentioned the Great Reform Act because it extended the franchise to included those owning houses worth more than £10 per annum. Did the Harmood Road properties cross the qualification threshold? I haven't yet traced William to the electoral register, but I will keep looking.

He would have been very much in favour of the Act and would have been looking forward to further reforms in the coming decade.

He was at the time working for the pioneering lithographer, Charles Hulmandell, but also in touch with influential periodicals such as the Examiner, Athenaeum and Spectator. In due course he would become a contributor of articles on art, theatre and literature.

Who was this man whom they say discovered the Brontes?

Charlotte Bronte described him as pale, mild, stooping man of about fifty.

We know, or can infer, that his schooling brought him into contact with boys who would go on to careers as significant thinkers and writers. We know that his social group included or was close to some of the most exciting thinking of his time. He grew up close to theatre land and both had a great love of theatre and a deep knowledge of it. He had a love of painting, Turner in particular; he wrote on the place of Art in Design. He worked for many years for a ground breaking Lithographer; he wrote on the techniques of Lithography. Yet, his emergence into the public view was from a position as a book keeper, and it would seem not a very good book keeper.

But who really was William Smith Williams?

The book sets out to trace whence he came and whither he went to find the characteristics that enabled him, among many far more eminent, to recognise a groundbreaking shift in the English novel.

Follow this link to find out how to buy the book 

William's love of books

William's brother, Richard

At some point William must have fallen under the spell of books for at the age of 25, newly married, he was running his own bookshop. We might pause and try to imagine what that shop might have been like. Books were expensive items. How well could a young man of modest means stock his shop? What titles might he carry? What customers may he have had? We can reach for our edition of Oliver Twist and the scene where the old gentleman is in the bookshop. Might William’s have been like that? Can we fast forward nearly two centuries to the book shop in Notting Hill run by another William in the film of that name?

Yet his father had been a Wax and Tallow Chandler and his family dealers in hides. Where might the love have come from?

William Smith Williams

William Smith Williams, my great great uncle, discovered Charlotte Bronte and was a rock of encouragement to her.

William and his wife Mary had eight children, among whom and whose progeny there were a number of fascinating and significant people.

Anna Williams was a celebrated singer and was Professor of Singing at the Royal College of Music in the late 19th century. Sir Arthur Dickinson was one of the founders of Price Waterhouse in the USA. Goldie Dickinson was a fellow of King's College Cambridge, mentor of EM Forster, and who worked on the formation of the League of Nations.

I am currently researching with a view to writing the story of this intriguing family and placing my research on pages on this blog.