This January

In Which You'll Find: Heathcliff, A Drawer of Epistles and Destroying Angels

Happy New Year!

What’s On at Symbolism & Structure…

Snow Flurries, 1953, Andrew Wyeth

Reading: A Biography

Over the last few months I’ve been reading All Alone: The Life and Private History of Emily Jane Brontë. A short biography, conceived by Romer Wilson (1891-1930) and published in 1928, All Alone is an absolute pleasure—I think she and I would have gotten along nicely if we’d met. She too, is always thinking about Heathcliff.

Here appears, very early in her life, that creature who is destined to become, in time, unregenerate, pagan, superstitious Heathcliff.

Never has a blue streak
     Cleft the clouds since morn;   
Never has his grim fate 
     Smiled since he was born.
Frowning on the infant 
     Shadowing childhood's joy, 
Guardian-angel knows not 
     That melancholy boy.

“The Two Children,” Emily Brontë, lines 7-14 ¹

Unlike many who have written about Emily Jane, Wilson walked where Emily walked and she was able to describe not only the landscape but also the inhabitants and the experiences of people living and working in so-called, Brontë Country.

I’m still reading and oft-annotating. More on this unique biography to come…

Writing: Mid-Month Missives and Discussion Threads

Last year I wrote a lot about Wuthering Heights. A nine-week Readers Guide and a thirty-four essay series called A Natural History of Wuthering Heights.

Rather than assembling words requiring a half hour of endless scrolling, this year I plan to offer more short missives and reserve lengthy essays/research projects for my small handful of paying subscribers.

This month I’m hosting my first free quarterly discussion thread…it’s called January: Drawer of Epistles. UPDATE: As of April 2026…I now encourage paid subscribers to comment on themed discussion threads in Chat.

They’ll post the first Sunday in January, April, July and October.

Reviving/Revising: From Chamomile Tea to Destroying Angels

I really missed working on my own novel in 2025. I mean: really missed it.

At the end of the year I spent time reworking some things. When I wrote my initial draft (long, long ago) I titled the novel: The Color of Chamomile Tea, a nod to my male protagonist; but now, I’m rewriting the novel. And so, renamed it. The new working title is, Destroying Angel.

Are you familiar with the destroying angel (Amanita bisporigera) mushroom? Amanita are deadly toxic. And feature in my revision. The natural world features heavily in my latest draft and I want to talk about it. I want to share my love of plant-lore, bird-lore and nature photography. I also want to ponder my own relationship to Emily Jane and her writing. I am going to call these posts, From My Study…

Destroying Angel (Amanita bisporigera), October 2018, Jessica Leigh Allen

From My Study… will be half craft essay, half memoir. Missives related to my revision process will be unpredictable. This morning, I’m looking around my study and I’m considering choices I’ve made, what is pinned on a cork board within reach, what remains in file folders, across the room. The heron skull. A bird’s nest. Minerals.

✑ An idea for a future post? The material culture of my study.

I’ve written the first dispatch From My Study… in it, I describe my writing life back in the early 2000s compared to my writing life now; I share a brief excerpt from my story and an image selected from my photography collection. I’ve been photographing the forest floor for nearly two decades.

Expect decomposers, detrivores and duff.

From My Study… will arrive in inboxes the first Wednesday of each month.

I have a number of Emily Jane & Wuthering Heights-related titles on my reading list this year. And, a growing list of research themes and topics! Benjamin’s preliminary sketches for Emily’s Little Stool are complete; after a few tweaks and substitutions its reproduction will soon be underway. It is so tiny + adorable!

As always, Thank You for sharing your time with me. I know you have plenty of other options. If you feel inclined, please tap the ♡ (Like), or better yet, Comment, Restack or Share my publication in Notes. Sadly, only engagement feeds a hungry algorithm.

1. Wilson, Romer, and Unwin Brothers (Firm). All Alone : The Life and Private History of Emily Jane Brontë. Chatto & Windus, 1928.