Miss Bendey is a Yorkshirewoman. She was born and has Jived a
large part of her life amid the Yorkshire countryside which people
throughout the world think of as the setting of the Bronte sisters*
own lives, and as a vital influence on the growth of their art.
Miss Bentley* s critical achievement includes her well-known P.E.N.
Booklet, The English Regional Novel. She is among the leading authori-
ties on the Brontes and all to do with them, being the editor of the
Heather Edition, author of The Brontes, published in 1947, and a member
of the Bronte Society Council. She brings not only a deep sympathy to
die works of the Brontes, but is in touch with the latest research into
their lives and writings.
Miss Bentley, herself a novelist of high distinction, has portrayed
life in Yorkshire from the seventeenth century to the present day in a
series of fictions, of which The Rise of Henry Morcar and Inheritance are
probably the most valued.
She has travelled widely, is well known as a lecturer in America,
and author of Here is America. She is a member of the P.E.N, Club
and the English Speaking Union, and takes a keen interest in the Little
Theatre movement. Miss Bentley has made revisions, including the
final section of the Bibliography, in this new edition of her booklet,
which ^a^first published in 1950,
