Life of Franklin Pierce, inscribed - photo 1
Life of Franklin Pierce, inscribed - photo 2
Life of Franklin Pierce, inscribed - photo 3

Life of Franklin Pierce, inscribed

Starting price
$ 7 000
Auction dateClassic
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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ID 967547
Lot 108 | Life of Franklin Pierce, inscribed
Life of Franklin Pierce, inscribed

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1852

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Life of Franklin Pierce. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1852.



A historically important presentation copy of the first edition of Life of Franklin Pierce, linking three Bowdoin friends. Inscribed by Hawthorne: "For Dr William Mason, with the regards of Nath. Hawthorne." Pierce, Hawthorne, and Mason had attended Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine together, with Pierce and Mason in the class of 1824 and Hawthorne in the class of 1825. All three were members of the democratic Athenaean Society, a literary group chaired by Pierce. In an 1832 letter to Pierce, Hawthorne had reflected: “You cannot imagine how proud I feel, when I recollect that I myself was once in office with you, on the standing committee of the Athenaean Society." Hawthorne also intimated to Pierce—then speaker of the New Hampshire legislature and candidate for Congress—that he might one day become president (CE 15:223). In 1852, Hawthorne offered to write Pierce’s presidential campaign biography and his offer was accepted (CE 16:545).



That same year, Mason, a beloved doctor, moved from distant Bucksport, Maine, to Charleston, Massachusetts, near Boston, and not that far from Concord. Perhaps the move brought the two former Athenaean Society members into renewed acquaintance. Hawthorne would later dedicate his 1863 collection of essays on England, Our Old Home, to Pierce, who had facilitated for him the Liverpool consulship that led to its writing (CE 5:[2]-5; see also CE 18:589-90). In 1864, on a trip with Pierce in New Hampshire, Hawthorne died. In 1869, Pierce died. And when, in 1881, Dr. William Mason died, he was described in his obituary as a “life-long” friend of the late former president (Boston Evening Transcript). Clearly, college ties had endured. In this historically important presentation copy, one friend of Franklin Pierce recognizes another. Clark A21; BAL 7612 (sequence not known for either point: binding A with spine imprint 2mm high and publisher's ads state C dated September 1852).



Octavo (180 x 106mm). Frontispiece portrait of Pierce, adverts in front dated September 1852 (some browning to frontispiece and title). Original brown cloth, gilt-stamped spine, blind-stamped cover (some chipping to spine ends and a little along joints, corners showing, some soiling); modern cloth box. Provenance: Dr William Mason (authorial inscription).

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15.06.2023
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