The Scarlet Letter, signed family copy with autograph manuscript - photo 1
The Scarlet Letter, signed family copy with autograph manuscript - photo 2
The Scarlet Letter, signed family copy with autograph manuscript - photo 3
The Scarlet Letter, signed family copy with autograph manuscript - photo 4

The Scarlet Letter, signed family copy with autograph manuscript

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$ 126 000
Auction dateClassic
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
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CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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ID 967665
Lot 90 | The Scarlet Letter, signed family copy with autograph manuscript
The Scarlet Letter, signed family copy with autograph manuscript

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850

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



[Together with:] Autograph manuscript signed "Nath. Hawthorne," no place, no date.



The Hawthorne family copy of The Scarlet Letter, together with the only known autograph manuscript of any portion of the novel in private hands.



The manuscript—the only known in private hands—is a fair copy of the final paragraph from Chapter 2 "The Market-Place" in The Scarlet Letter, wherein Hester Prynne stands on the scaffold, wearing the scarlet letter A and holding Pearl, her baby: one of the most powerful images in the novel, a compelling rendering of shame and humiliation—and resilience. The townspeople violate her with their stares, yet she remains, somehow, inviolate. This image of Hester has become iconic and enduring in our culture—like that of the white whale in Melville’s Moby-Dick or that of Huck and Jim on the raft in Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Having recalled her fading past, Hester confronts the dominant present in the manuscript, which reads:



"Could it be true? She clutched the child fiercely to her heart, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward to the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes! – these were her realities; – all else had vanished!" Nathaniel Hawthorne.



Notably this extraordinary fragment includes a textual difference from the first edition—here Hawthorne writes "heart" where the first edition prints "breast." The autograph manuscript leaf for the title-page and table of contents of the novel sold at Anderson Galleries in 1904 (it is now located in the Morgan Library), and regarding the balance of the original manuscript, Hawthorne famously commented that "I put it up the chimney." No other autograph manuscript (quotation or otherwise) of the Scarlet Letter is recorded at auction. The immediacy of these final sentences of the second chapter is nowhere more palpable than in Hawthorne's very own hand.



This family copy of The Scarlet Letter is the first edition, signed on the title page by Hawthorne and two of his children, Julian and Rose. Tipped in is an original page of manuscript by Julian giving his poignant description of the writing and publication of his father's masterpiece. Only two other signed or inscribed copies of The Scarlet Letter are recorded in the auction records by RBH. Laden with a variety of important Hawthorne-related legacies, the present copy is a superb association copy, one of the finest and most important literary survivals in private hands.



Julian writes: "My father wrote this book during the winter of 1849-50, in Salem, Mass. His mother was at that time in the house, and her last illness and death occurred while the story was being written—she died before it was finished. This circumstance no doubt added to the sombre tone of the book. My father himself thought it too gloomy, for popular liking, and didn't offer it for publication, but his friend J.F. Fields, the publisher happened to call on him and asked him whether he had written anything of late?—my father took out the MS., which Fields read before leaving the house that evening. He saw its merits and took it away with him—nevertheless, only a few hundred copies of the First Edition were printed, and the type was then distributed. But the sale was almost immediately large, and it was necessary to set it up again. It has been selling ever since. J. H. 1921." Julian's version is mostly accurate, though Fields would later recount that he read the manuscript not in the Hawthorne home but on his return trip to Boston. Further, it is known that 2500 copies of the first printing were sold within the first week, far exceeding Julian's estimate of "few hundred." Rose has added below her signature "Mother M[ary] Alphonsa Lathrop," reflecting her commitment to the religious order she founded, which would become known as the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. With two ALSs at the front, one from J.T. Fields mounted on inside cover and one from Rose tipped to ad leaf (both are unrelated to the Scarlet Letter; Fields makes lunch arrangements, Rose asks for clothing donations).



Julian and Rose both honored the memory of their father, writing about him, most notably, in Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife and Hawthorne and His Circle (Julian) and Memories of Hawthorne (Rose). The lives of Julian and Rose give significant added weight to this singular copy of The Scarlet Letter. BAL 7600; Clark A16.1; Grolier American 59.



Octavo. 4 pp. of publisher's ads at front dated 1 March 1950, title page printed in black and red (front hinge repaired, small stain to page 107 affecting adjacent leaves). Original cloth (a bit worn at spine ends and tips, cloth splitting along upper 40mm of rear joint, mount for Fields letter supplanting original upper pastedown; overall a bright copy); modern chemise and morocco pull-off case decorated with a scarlet "A". Provenance: Albert B. Ashforth (Parke-Bernet, 20 & 21 February 1950, lot 244) – Swann, 20 April 2006, lot 31. The manuscript: 1 page, 136 x 87mm, ink on bifolium laid paper with embossed fleur-de-lis at upper corner; modern half morocco clamshell box.

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