Portrait of Emily Brontë

Birthday profile

Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë, English novelist and poet (died 1848)

Born
July 30, 1818
Died
December 19, 1848
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1818

About Emily Brontë

Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. She also co-authored a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte and Anne entitled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Emily was the fifth of six Brontë siblings, four of whom survived into adulthood. Her mother, Maria Branwell, died when she was three, leaving the children in the care of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. Apart from brief intervals at school, Emily was mostly taught at home by her father, Patrick Brontë, who was the curate of Haworth. She was very close to her siblings, especially her younger sister Anne, and together they wrote books and journals depicting imaginary worlds named Glass Town, Angria and Gondal. She was described by her sister Charlotte as solitary, strong-willed and nonconforming, with a keen love of nature and animals. Apart from a brief period at school, and another as a student and teacher in Brussels with her sister Charlotte, Emily spent most of her life at home in Haworth, helping the family servant with chores, playing the piano and teaching herself from books. Her work was originally published under the pen name Ellis Bell. It was not generally admired at the time, and many critics felt that the characters in Wuthering Heights were coarse and immoral. In spite of this, the novel is considered a classic of English literature. Emily Brontë died in 1848, aged 30, a year after the novel's publication. The siblings created tiny books for the soldiers to "read", some of which are on display at the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, and, in December 1827 they produced a novel, Glass Town. This was the first time Emily had attended school since her few months at Cowan Bridge.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Emily Brontë timeline

  1. Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel Wuthering Heights.
  2. The siblings created tiny books for the soldiers to "read", some of which are on display at the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, and, in December 1827 they produced a novel, Glass Town.

The world when Emily Brontë was born

Emily Brontë was born in 1818. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1818

  • Best-selling bookFrankenstein by Mary Shelley

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineUS-Canada border established at 49th parallel
  • Technology milestoneFirst blood transfusion using human blood
  • World population~990M

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJames Monroe
  • U.S. population9.1M

1818 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Emily Brontë's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18182026
Population9.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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