Mosses from an Old Manse, the Bradley Martin copy

Lot 84
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 3 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 967630
Lot 84 | Mosses from an Old Manse, the Bradley Martin copy
Estimate value
$ 3 000 – 5 000
Mosses from an Old Manse, the Bradley Martin copy

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1846

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Mosses from an Old Manse. New York and London: Wiley and Putnam 1846.



The Bradley Martin copy of the first edition, first printing, in the original wrappers. Hawthorne's 1846 short story collection was named after the historic manse in Concord, Massachusetts, where he and his wife lived early in their marriage. His friend Herman Melville would review the book, pointing to the darker side of Hawthorne's fiction, famously writing: "Still more: his black conceit pervades him through and through. You may be witched by his sunlight,—transported by the bright gildings in the skies he builds over you;—but there is the blackness of darkness beyond; and even his bright gildings but fringe, and play upon the edges of thunder-clouds." In the present copy, the copyright pages for both volumes list Craighead and Smith; the wrappers are in BAL's first state and Clark's first state for the upper and inside lower wrapper and third state for the outside wrapper. Regarding the wrappers, Clark notes that "no priority can be assigned to a particular combination with precision." BAL 7598 (first state of wrappers with 18 titles listed); Clark A.15.a1.



Two volumes, octavo (190 x 128mm). Half-titles. Original buff printed wrappers (backstrips renewed preserving most of original titling, a few smaller repairs to extremities of wrappers); modern chemises and slipcase. Provenance: William S.W. Ruschenberger, 1807-1895, U.S. Navy surgeon, naturalist, and author (ownership inscription to half-title in first volume) – H. Bradley Martin (bookplate, his sale, Sotheby's New York, 30 & 31 January 1990, lot 2064).

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