Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell was a volume of poetry published jointly by the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne in 1846 (see 1846 in poetry), and their first work to ever go in print. To evade contemporary prejudice against female writers, the Brontë sisters adopted masculine first names. All three retained the first letter of their first names: Charlotte became "Currer Bell", Anne became "Acton Bell", and Emily became "Ellis Bell". The book was printed by Aylott and Jones, from London. The first edition failed to attract interest, with
Bronte House to refer to her lover as the 'Duke of Thunder') and in 1520, the name was officially applied to a small village on the slopes of the volcano, Mount Etna in Sicily. It was this Duchy that was awarded to Nelson, so Bronte must have seemed an apt choice of name for both the eponymous house, the beach and the suburb as they are all at what was, and indeed still is , known as Nelson Bay, a name that survives in all official maps and is much older than that of "Bronte Beach". Robert Lowe (1811-92), an Oxford graduate