On Hawthorne`s forthcoming campaign biography - photo 1
On Hawthorne`s forthcoming campaign biography - photo 2
On Hawthorne`s forthcoming campaign biography - photo 3
On Hawthorne`s forthcoming campaign biography - photo 4

On Hawthorne`s forthcoming campaign biography

Lot 107
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 2 268
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 967649
Lot 107 | On Hawthorne's forthcoming campaign biography
Estimate value
$ 1 000 – 1 500
On Hawthorne's forthcoming campaign biography

Franklin Pierce, 23 June 1852

PIERCE, Franklin (1804-1869). Autograph letter signed ("Frank. Pierce") to Charles O'Connor, n.p., 23 June 1852.



One page, bifolium, 250 x 198mm (minor soiled spots at extreme margins).



"My friend Nathl. Hawthorne is writing a biographical sketch…" Presidential candidate Pierce writes of his forthcoming campaign biography. Hawthorne and Pierce first met as students at Bowdoin College and remained lifelong friends. On 5 June 1852, Pierce found himself (unexpectedly) the Democratic nominee for President after the convention deadlocked and selected the former New Hampshire senator as a dark horse compromise candidate after 49 ballots. To prepare for the contest against the Whigs in the general election, Pierce tapped his old friend who had been turned out of his own federal post as port surveyor of Beverly, Massachusetts in 1849 when the Whigs took control of the White House. Here, Pierce offers to send O'Connor a copy "perhaps before it is generally circulated," but warns that he is "inclined to think that he [Hawthorne] would prefer not to have his undertaking made public at present." Hawthorne's biography was a positive spin on the New Hampshire Democrat which carefully avoided the subject of Pierce's drinking habits. Horace Mann quipped that if the author of the Scarlet Letter "makes out Pierce to be a great man or a brave man, it will be the greatest work of fiction he ever wrote." After Pierce won the general election in November, he secured Hawthorne the post of United States Consul at Liverpool and remained there until the end of the Pierce Administration in 1857.



[With:] PIERCE, Jane (1806-1863). Autograph letter signed ("Jane") to Mary Aiken, Concord, 1 October 1862. Four pages, bifolium, 183 x 148mm, with original transmittal envelope addressed in her hand, 68 x 119mm. Pierce reports to her older sister on her husband's busy schedule a month before his death and complains of "the gross and revolting falsehoods wh[ich]. appear in the papers." Pierce had been the victim of a letter purportedly sent as a hoax to a Detroit newspaper in the Spring of 1862 intimating that the former President was organizing a plot to overthrow the federal government (See "General Pierce and the State Department," New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette, Concord, 9 April 1862, p. 2.) Pierce also writes of her pleasure that Mary liked "Hawthorne's book — it so simply truthful." It is unclear whether she is referring to Hawthorne's last major novel, The Marble Faun (1860) or his July 1862 essay on the Civil War, "Chiefly About War Matters," published in The Atlantic Monthly which proved controversial for his southern sympathies and its antiwar sentiments.

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
Preview
15.06.2023
Phone +1 212 636 2000
Fax +1 212 636 4930
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase
Shipping Postal service
Courier service
pickup by yourself
Payment methods Wire Transfer
Business hoursBusiness hours
Mo 09:30 – 17:00   
Tu 09:30 – 17:00   
We 09:30 – 17:00   
Th 09:30 – 17:00   
Fr 09:30 – 17:00   
Sa closed
Su closed

Related terms

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.