Chawton House in Hampshire is “The Great House” formerly belonging to Jane Austen’s brother Edward Austen Knight, just up the road from the cottage where she herself resided for some years and which became Jane Austen's House Museum. Jane walked up to the “Great House” regularly during her years in Chawton in order to dine there with family, to spend time with her motherless nieces and nephews, to explore the gardens, and to worship at St. Nicholas church next door.

 

Presently, Chawton House safeguards the Knight family’s library books, a few important paintings and antiques, as well as an extraordinary collection of works by early women writers. These works were assembled during the 1990s by American philanthropist Sandy Lerner, founder of Cisco Systems, after discovering how understudied and uncollected many early women authors were. Chawton House has, subsequently, become a center for the study of the female pens that preceded and inspired Austen’s own: many scholars, bibliophiles, and philanthropists have added to the core collection. Much new scholarship has emerged from work done on site.

 

After almost single-handedly carrying the financial burden of Chawton House’s ambitious restoration and maintenance for two decades, Lerner had to step away from the project, leaving Chawton House to make its own way in the world.  Many friends are needed to help this worthy charity and historic property establish a bright future of financial independence. After all, Chawton House and the rich literary history it now safeguards should never have been one person’s financial responsibility to shoulder.

 

NAFCH (formerly NAFCHL) is an official charity registered in the USA and Canada, or what Americans term a “501(c)(3).”  Our tax-exempt status allows US donors to get a tax deduction for their charitable donation, giving them an extra incentive to be generous. We thus exist expressly in order to raise funds for Chawton House and support its primary mission to raise awareness and increase our understanding of the early women writers who preceded, inspired, and influenced Jane Austen. 

 

Please join us. Become a Friend of “The Great House,” its lovely rooms and historic garden, and the many early women writers, including Jane Austen, whose legacy and works reside within.

​

Many thanks,

Linda Troost

President