It is an unprecedented treasure trove of the UK’s literary heritage, from a letter in which Jane Austen anticipates the end of a love affair, to a handwritten manuscript of Emily Brontë’s poems that was once believed lost.
Half the amount was donated by Sir Leonard Blavatnik, with a further £4m from the National Heritage Memorial Fund .
It was put up for auction at Sotheby’s earlier this year, to the horror of literary institutions up and down the country, who feared that precious manuscripts by the Brontës, Austen, Walter Scott and Robert Burns could fall into private hands.
Blavatnik’s donation is the largest ever given by an individual to the UK for a literary treasure, while the £4m given by the NHMF is the largest it has ever awarded for the acquisition of literary manuscripts.
“There has been unprecedented public interest in this collection of manuscripts and books hidden for almost a century.
As well as a humorous letter from Austen to her sister Cassandra, in which she writes, on the eve of a ball, that “at length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over.
Sotheby’s specialist Dr Gabriel Heaton said the collection was “like no other that has come to market in recent decades.