Charlotte's anguished letter to go on show at Brontë museum

The letter, dated October 18, 1848, was written in the brief interval between the deaths of Charlotte's brother, Branwell, on September 24 and of her sister, Emily, on December 19 that year.

The letter was written to William Smith Williams, the reader at her publishers who she confided in, and in it the author talks about her sadness and how work on her second novel, Shirley, has suffered.

"My book – alas! is laid aside," she wrote, and added: "Both head and hand seem to have lost their cunning; imagination is pale, stagnant, mute – this incapacity chagrins me; sometimes I have a feeling of cankering care on the subject – but I combat it as well as I can – it does no good."

The black-bordered letter has been kept in California as part of a private collection at James L Copley Library, but it was bought by the Bront Society at Sotheby's in New York earlier this year. Now it is returning to Haworth and it will go on display for the first time at the Bront Parsonage Museum.

The museum has the largest collection of items relating to the Bronts in the world. It now houses a huge number of books and articles as well as original documents, resources and materials.

Collections manager Ann Dinsdale said: "The letters written to William Smith Williams are amongst the most significant of all Charlotte's correspondence.

"This particular letter has remained in a private collection in America for many years and it is wonderful to be able to make it available for the first time."

The letter will be on display until the end of the year.