If you happen to find yourself in London, UK sometime from now until February 19, you should head on over to the British Library and check out the exhibit, Jane Austen Among Family and Friends. The exhibit includes Jane’s juvenilia, notebooks, and letters amongst friends and family — much of which haven’t been together in decades. The exhibit also has Jane’s writing desk, given to her by her father, where she wrote most of her books.
British Library’s Press Release:
Jane Austen Among Family and Friends
(10 January 2017 – 19 February 2017)
Next year marks the bicentenary of the death of one of our most-loved writers, Jane Austen. To mark this anniversary, we are bringing together writings from Austen’s formative teenage years for the first time in 40 years, from the British Library and Bodleian Library collections, plus family letters and memorabilia as part of a temporary display in our free Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery. This display will also include one of the Library’s finest treasures – Austen’s writing desk.
Together they illuminate the personal family life of this towering literary figure. We are uniting the three treasured notebooks that Austen kept of her teenage writings, which include “The Beautiful Cassandra”, a story dedicated to Austen’s sister, and a spoof history of England featuring illustrations of the Kings and Queens by Cassandra Austen. The exhibits reveal family joys and sorrows which shaped the writer: one letter tells of Austen’s sorrow on the death of her beloved father, while a poem expresses the joy Austen felt on the birth of her nephew.
Check out BL’s website for more information on how to get to the library, admission, and other exhibits and more information here.
(P.S. Having been to BL several times, the place is ah-maz-ing.)