On this day in 1775, Jane Austen was born. That makes today her 243rd birthday!

To celebrate her birthday and all the good times she has provided readers, I would like to draw your attention to a nifty little book we have in our Special Collections, Three Evening Prayers by Jane Austen. This thin volume was printed by Jane Bissel Grabhorn at her Colt Press, a satellite of the Grabhorn Press, for the first time in 1940, thanks to the acquisition of the letters by the Colt Press.

These prayers of Austen’s were discovered in a private lot in the UK and some ink has been spilled determining whether they are or are not in Jane Austen’s hand. It has pretty much been settled that at least half of the last prayer is in her hand indeed, although the person or people who actually wrote each prayer is not entirely clear. The discussion of this, as well as the full provenance of the letters, are described in detail in the thin volume’s introduction.

The three prayers, beautifully set in bracketed serif capitals, give shape and form to the way in which religion and faith was interwoven in Austen’s life and family—a family of clergymen. As William Matson Roth says in the introduction, “Hers was the religion of the low church—broad, realistic, taking itself somewhat as a matter of course… Integrated into all the better aspects of country life, good acts were its criteria.”  Following the printed text is a tipped-in reproduction of the prayer determined to be written in Austen’s hand.

This volume is available for consultation during any of our open hours; feel free to contact us to come on in for a visit. If you’re curious about Colt Press and Grabhorn Press, check out our Grabhorn Press research guide.