Charlotte Brontë The pseudonyms veiled the sisters' sex while preserving their initials; thus Charlotte was Currer Bell. "Bell" was the middle name of Haworth's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls whom Charlotte later married, and "Currer" was the surname of Frances Mary Richardson Currer who had funded their school (and maybe their father). Of the decision to use "noms de plume", Charlotte wrote: Although only two copies of the collection of poems were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use their "noms de plume" when sending manuscripts to potential publishers. Brontë's first manuscript, "The Professor", did
Bronte House in 1909. In 1935 the Ebsworths tried to interest the NSW Premier Sir Bertram Stevens in the NSW Government buying the house. For a time after World War II it was occupied by the Bronte branch of the Australian Red Cross (two rooms and the kitchen at the house's rear) and used as offices. In 1848 Austin Ebsworth, a bachelor, sold it to Waverley Council who seem to have acquired it as part of an exercise to consolidate the valley leading to Bronte Beach as parkland. Council owned and operated it in various uses for some years. It suffered from