The Scarlet Letter

Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1850

FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL CLOTH of one of the great classics of American Literature. One of only 2500 copies printed.

In November 1849, "James T. Fields--the junior partner in Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston's most eminent publishing firm--entered Hawthorne's professional and personal life. He called on Hawthorne in Salem, returned to Boston with an unfinished manuscript, and soon began advertising 'a new volume by Hawthorne.' At that point Hawthorne planned to lighten his dark tale of adultery with a group of 'old-time legends' that presumably included 'Ethan Brand,' but Fields soon dissuaded him. Hawthorne then wrote the long autobiographical introduction called 'The Custom-House' and completed his novel. The Scarlet Letter appeared in March 1850, a story of a proud adulteress sentenced by her stern Puritan judges to wear a scarlet A on her breast, the hypocritical minister who was her lover, her beautiful, unruly child, and her revenge-obsessed husband. Despite Salemites' complaints of being maligned in the introduction and some critics' objections to the novel's 'scandalous' subject, it was immediately hailed as a work of genius and America's first major novel" (American National Biography).

Octavo, original cloth; custom half-morocco box. Split at front edge between between front ads and blank; front hinge tender. Recased with original spine laid down. With March 1, 1850 ads.

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A Farewell to Arms

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Cold Mountain

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On the Road

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To Have and Have Not

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Howl

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Price On Request

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Hawthorne, Nathaniel