The Scarlet Letter, a presentation copy to Mullet - photo 1
The Scarlet Letter, a presentation copy to Mullet - photo 2
The Scarlet Letter, a presentation copy to Mullet - photo 3

The Scarlet Letter, a presentation copy to Mullet

Lot 91
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 138 600
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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Archive
ID 967571
Lot 91 | The Scarlet Letter, a presentation copy to Mullet
Estimate value
$ 100 000 – 150 000
The Scarlet Letter, a presentation copy to Mullet

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). The Scarlet Letter, a Romance. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850.



An exceptional presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed by Hawthorne on the flyleaf, "Geo W. Mullet, Esq. from the author," underscoring a relationship that helped make the Scarlet Letter possible.



In the fall of 1845, the Hawthorne family returned to Salem from Concord and Nathaniel anxiously awaited a job offer to come through. The months began to pass; his pregnant wife Sophia was due in June 1846 with their second child and he was having difficulty writing. "Almost frantic," he wrote to a friend, "What a devil of a pickle I shall be in if the baby should come, and the office should not!" (qtd. in Wineapple, pp.191-192). Hawthorne's appointment as surveyor of the Salem Custom House was finally confirmed in March 1846 and scholar Richard Kopley notes that the author would have been distinctly grateful to George Mullet, the recipient of the present copy, to whom he was indebted for his support in securing this post. The post provided not only $1200 per annum for his young family but also the background (if not inspiration) for the lengthy "Custom-House" introduction to The Scarlet Letter. The author would later memorably characterize the introduction as the "entrance-hall to the magnificent edifice which I throw open to my guests" (letter of 20 January 1850 to his publisher Fields). Kopley writes that Mullet, a Democrat, had given up his nomination as Naval Officer and had thereby persuaded Richard Lindsay to give up his nomination as Surveyor, in order to allow John D. Howard to be nominated as Naval Officer and Hawthorne as Surveyor. President Polk approved, and the rest became history. One Hawthorne biographer would later even term Mullet “the hero of the hour” for having made Hawthorne’s appointment possible (Edward Mather, Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Modest Man, 178).



As for Mullet and Lindsay, they did subsequently become Inspectors at the Custom House, as Mullet recalled in a letter to George H. Holden (Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Memories of Hawthorne, 112-14). Holden himself, in an 1884 letter to Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (Hawthorne’s younger daughter), considered Mullet their “noble-hearted friend” (Lathrop, 110). Hawthorne’s favorable opinion of Mullet is evident not only in his having presented this copy of The Scarlet Letter to him, but also in his having written a letter to W.B. Pike in 1853, seeking a minor Custom House position for the struggling Zachariah Burchmore, recommending that Pike talk with Mullet, “who is far too good a fellow to kick a man after he is down” (CE 16:691).



Rare at auction: only two other copies of the Scarlet Letter inscribed by Hawthorne are recorded in RBH. BAL 7600; Clark A16.1; Grolier American 59.



Octavo. 4 pp. of publisher's ads dated 1 March 1850 at front, title page printed in black and red (a little spotting to ads and prelims, creasing to a few leaves in introduction). Original cloth (lightly rubbed at spine ends and tips, small split to cloth at front joint, gilt very bright); modern chemise and full morocco pull-off box. Provenance: George W. Mullet, Esq. (authorial inscription) — Efrem Zimbalist (his sale, Parke-Bernet, 15 & 16 November 1939, lot 169; misidentified as "Mallett") – H. Bradley Martin (bookplate in chemise, his sale, Sotheby's New York, 30 January 1990, lot 2065; misidentified as "Mallet").

Artist:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864)
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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