To George Hillard regarding financial support in hard times - photo 1
To George Hillard regarding financial support in hard times - photo 2

To George Hillard regarding financial support in hard times

Lot 82
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 6 300
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 967678
Lot 82 | To George Hillard regarding financial support in hard times
Estimate value
$ 5 000 – 7 000
To George Hillard regarding financial support in hard times

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 10 October 1844

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Autograph letter signed ("Nath Hawthorne") to George S. Hillard, Concord, 10 October 1844.



One page, bifolium, 244 x 196mm (mild dustsoiling and a few marginal tears).



An impoverished Hawthorne thanks his friend Hillard for his financial support. Written at an exceedingly anxious time for Hawthorne: Sophia had given birth to their first child, their daughter Una, in March. And without the regular income that came from a government post (he resigned from the Boston Custom House in 1841 following the election of the Whig William Henry Harrison), he was reduced to selling apples, potatoes, and grass to pay his rent. Hawthorne writes rejoicing that Hillard's "letter and its inclosure (thirty-eight dollars) arrived safe. I had been confidently expecting some money from one quarter or another for two or three days past; for I have observed that whenever I infringe upon my ultimate dollar, Providence never fails, shortly there after, to send some small modicum of supply. I only wish it would untie its purse strings a little more bountifully. We are all well — except that Una is cutting two upper teeth, much to the inconvenience of her mother and me, as well as herself." Fortunately for Hawthorne, the Democrats regained control of the Executive Mansion in the fall, and his hopes for a government post were revived. But it would take another two years for the starving author (who to his financial detriment turned down numerous offers from his political friends) to land a new post, this time as a surveyor at the Salem Custom House. When Hawthorne lost that post in 1849 due to the incoming Whig Administration of Zachary Taylor, Hillard once again took up a collection for his friend to see him through renewed financial hardship. Not published in Letters, Centennial Edition.

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