Inscribed by Hawthorne to Longfellow - photo 1
Inscribed by Hawthorne to Longfellow - photo 2
Inscribed by Hawthorne to Longfellow - photo 3

Inscribed by Hawthorne to Longfellow

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$ 17 640
Auction dateClassic
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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USA, New York
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ID 967683
Lot 70 | Inscribed by Hawthorne to Longfellow
Inscribed by Hawthorne to Longfellow

Works of Ovid, 1786

[HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864) and Henry Wadsworth LONGFELLOW (1807-1882).] OVID. Les Oeuvres Galantes et Amoureuses. London: 1786.



An important presentation, linking two of the 19th century's greatest writers: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's copies of Ovid, inscribed to him by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Transformation is at the heart of the classical writer Ovid, and Hawthorne transformed his two-volume 1786 edition of Ovid’s love poetry—dated by hand Oct. 1833—to a gift to his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, inscribed “Nath. Hawthorne to H. W. Longfellow 1841” (in volume 1) and “H. W. Longfellow from Nath. Hawthorne 1841” (in volume 2). Each volume has a further gift inscription dated exactly 100 years later between Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1881-1950), the grandson of both H.W. Longfellow and fellow author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., to Manning Hawthorne (1906-1985), the great-grandson of Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana to Manning Hawthorne 1941." Both volumes with H.W. Longfellow's bookplates.



Hawthorne had previously given his former Bowdoin classmate a copy of the 1837 Twice-Told Tales (CE 15:249), and Longfellow had responded with a favorable review (CE 15:255). It was probably in early 1841 that Hawthorne sent Longfellow his children’s book Famous Old People, with its brief historical section “The Acadian Exiles,” which closed (in Grandfather’s words), “But, methinks, if I were an American poet, I would choose Acadia for the subject of my song” (CE 6:129). Hawthorne had already ceded the story of the separated Acadian lovers to Longfellow. It was later in 1841, in all likelihood, that Hawthorne gave Longfellow the set of Ovid. Hawthorne was not giving up on the classical writer—indeed, three years later he would write a New England version of the story of Pygmalion, “Drowne’s Wooden Image.” Rather, we may infer, he was honoring—and perhaps encouraging—Longfellow’s transformative imagination. In 1847, Longfellow published the celebrated poem about the Acadian exiles (see lot 43 in this sale), about which Hawthorne wrote in a later edition of Famous Old People, “Since Grandfather first spoke these words, the most famous of American poets has drawn sweet tears from all of us, by his beautiful poem of Evangeline” (CE 6:129). The friendship of Hawthorne and Longfellow endured, ending only with Hawthorne’s death in May 1864. Longfellow wrote of the funeral, in part, “For the one face I looked for was not there, / The one low voice was mute; / Only an unseen presence filled the air, / And baffled my pursuit” (“Hawthorne”).



Two volumes, 12mo. (Small loss to upper corner of front flyleaf above the year "1833"). Contemporary calf, all edges gilt (some chipping to spine ends and joints, tips worn); modern quarter morocco box. Provenance: Nathaniel Hawthorne (ownership date "Oct 1833") – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882 (gift inscription from Nathaniel Hawthorne dated 1841, bookplates) – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, 1881-1950 (gift inscription to:) – Manning Hawthorne, 1906-1985.

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