(July 30th, 1818 — December 19th, 1848)

Emily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet. Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, is considered a classic book in English Literature.

Brontë was the second youngest of six children and one of only four who survived to adulthood. Her sisters Charlotte and Anne were also authors of note. Her surviving brother was Branwell Brontë.

By the age of eight, Brontë had lost her mother and her two oldest sisters (Maria and Elizabeth). Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, and Branwell Brontë were all sickly and in chronic poor health from a young age. Likely, their poor health was cause by the harsh conditions of life on the moors and unsanitary water that had been contaminated by the nearby church’s graveyard.

She began writing at a young age, creating a world and series of writings labelled ‘Gondal’ with her sister Anne. These writings were large unpreserved, but shaped her later novels.

At one point, Emily attempted working as a teacher, but the long hours and relentless schedule caused a decline in her poor health.

Her first book of poetry with her sisters was The Poems of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, published in 1846 — ‘Ellis Bell’ being Emily Brontë’s pen name. Her poems were much lauded, though the volume didn’t sell very well. The next year she published Wuthering Heights, also under the name ‘Ellis Bell’.

Emily died the next year. The cause of death was tuberculosis, and Brontë refused to see a doctor for nearly two months, until the day she died. Her brother Branwell had died only three months earlier and her sister Anne died only six months afterwards, both of tuberculosis.