Austen 250: Introducing the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation
- Sarah Hurley
- Jul 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 19
Hello, dear readers! In celebration of JASP’s focus on transatlantic topics related to Austen’s life and works in 2025, this article offers a brief introduction to the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, a non-profit initiative founded by Caroline Jane Knight, Jane Austen’s fifth-great niece who grew up in Chawton House.
Following her twenty-five-year hiatus from all things Jane Austen-related, the publication of the special 200th-anniversary edition of Pride and Prejudice in 2013 finally inspired Caroline Jane Knight to reclaim her heritage. Determined to channel “the magic” of the Jane Austen name into a force for public good, she launched the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation online on October 31, 2014.
In the beginning, Caroline didn’t have a specific vision in mind for the foundation: “Most not-for-profits start with a cause,” she tells me with a laugh. “Somebody is so compelled to fill a gap … because there is a particular thing they want to do. The Jane Austen Literacy Foundation was different…. I knew that there was a huge community, and sort of fanbase, if you like, out there, and I knew that I had the skills, as I said, and this unique connection to Jane Austen.”
Growing up with a father and brother who suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia, Caroline knew first-hand the challenges of unfulfilled educational needs. And what better way to honor Austen’s legacy than by promoting global literacy? Thus, the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation was born. Referring to the Jane Austen fan community to understand how she could best use her talents and resources to serve individuals locally and abroad, Caroline soon realized her connection to “the Jane Austen name” alone had the power to “attract volunteers en masse.”
It was a brilliant stroke of luck for the organization when, shortly after launching, director Simon Langton of the BBC’s 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries reached out to ask how he could help promote the foundation’s mission. He and Caroline met up in Chawton to discuss the foundation’s future, where he was the first to suggest that Caroline write a book about her experience as the last of Jane’s nieces to live in Chawton House as a private family home. (This book eventually became her memoir Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage.) Langton also authored the first issue of Pride and Possibilities, the foundation’s monthly journal.
Over time, the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation has attracted a dedicated staff of part-time volunteers—including Caroline, whose work is also contributed on a volunteer basis. She admits that “it’s been ten years of putting one foot in front of the other,” keeping their finger on the pulse of the Jane Austen community and making the most of each opportunity that arises. Today, the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation develops and promotes a range of online literacy-driven activities. It hosts an annual writing contest, runs a thirty-day literacy challenge in September, provides digital resources for teachers, and mentors children’s writing. Caroline also hosts events for the benefit of the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation at Jane Austen Regency Week in Alton and Chawton each year, and around the world.
In 2025, the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation aims to support the reach and influence of Jane Austen’s life and writings in celebration of the author’s 250th birthday. Later this year, the foundation will publish a special commemorative edition of Pride and Prejudice and launch Jane 250, an online project highlighting 250 historical editions of the novel and showcasing 250 personal stories of Jane’s impact on the lives of Janeites around the world. This edition of Pride and Prejudice will be the first Austen-penned work published with an introduction by a family member since Henry Austen's introduction in Bentley’s publication of Jane’s novels in 1833.
Furthermore, the foundation raises money in support of literacy programs in developing communities, specifically in India, Ghana, Syria, Lebanon, Indigenous Australia, and for Ukrainian refugees in the UK. In 2019, Caroline traveled to India to see the children’s literacy programs funded by the foundation in action. When she conversed with the mothers of a few five-year-old students via a translator, one expressed that her greatest ambition for her child was to see them educated enough to secure a job working indoors.
Even now, Caroline grows emotional recounting this story: “It touches me, when you can make that difference—that is what drives me … to actually be able to turn Jane’s legacy into something that is making a fundamental difference in children’s lives now.”
If you would like to support the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation, click here to become a Friend of the Foundation, or here to make a one-time donation.
Quotes excerpted from Zoom interview with Caroline Jane Knight, October 21, 2024.
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