The Scarlet Letter, with a letter from Hawthorne - photo 1
The Scarlet Letter, with a letter from Hawthorne - photo 2
The Scarlet Letter, with a letter from Hawthorne - photo 3
The Scarlet Letter, with a letter from Hawthorne - photo 4

The Scarlet Letter, with a letter from Hawthorne

Lot 94
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 30 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 967549
Lot 94 | The Scarlet Letter, with a letter from Hawthorne
Estimate value
$ 30 000 – 50 000
The Scarlet Letter, with a letter from Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). The Scarlet Letter, a Romance. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850. [With:] Autograph letter signed ("Nath. Hawthorne") to Donald Grant Mitchell (1822-1908), The Wayside, Concord, Mass., 15 April 1862.



"I have been trying to make my way into another Romance, but realities are too strong for me, and I meet with no good success..."



A fine copy of the first edition of Hawthorne's masterpiece, with a war-time autograph letter discussing his portrait and writing. Hawthorne writes to Donald Grant Mitchell, the American essayist and novelist known under his pen name "Ik Marvel." His 1850 collection of essays Reveries of a Bachelor was a best-seller and reportedly one of Emily Dickinson's favorite books.



Hawthorne's letter follows a war-time visit to Washington with publisher, friend, and advisor William Ticknor. While there he glimpsed the war first-hand, meeting President Lincoln and visiting the Manassas battle-field. He also posed for portraits, including photographs at Mathew Brady's studio (he didn't like the results) and a painting by Emanuel Leutze. He tells Mitchell, in part: "I think the enclosed photograph [not present] is the least objectionable of half a dozen from which I selected—all of them being stern, hard, ungenial, and more over, somewhat grayer than the original. The sun has a spite at me, because I have shunned him and lived mostly in the shade. I passed through New Haven the other evening, and would gladly have stopt, had I known you were there. For myself, I have made some additions to a little old cottage, and am settled here, I suppose, for life—though with many regretful and longing looks across the sea. If our country crumbles quite to pieces, we shall all be at liberty to choose another. I have been trying to make my way into another Romance, but realities are too strong for me, and I meet with no good success. Why has your pen been idle for so long? Hoping, against hope, that we shall soon see happier times." The work Hawthorne mentions would be his final one, the unfinished Dolliver Romance, published 12 years after his death in 1876. The manuscript of the unfinished novel would be placed upon his coffin at his funeral. BAL 7600; Clark A16.1; Grolier American 59.



Octavo (180 x 110mm). Adverts dated 1 March 1850, title page printed in black and red. Original cloth (foot of spine a little frayed, some rubbing at extremities). Letter: 3 pp., bifolium leaf, 150 x 95mm (creased), tipped in to book; modern morocco pull-off box. Provenance: J.W.E. Osgood (partially erased ownership inscription to flyleaf) – Sotheby's New York, 13 April 2004, lot 83.

Artist:Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864)
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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15.06.2023
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