Hawthorne’s Patriotic Tales for Children
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Grandfather’s Chair: A History for Youth [and] Famous Old People
Boston: E.P. Peabody, 1841
Two volumes. Original plum cloth with oxidized black paper label on the front cover Some wear and stains. Very good.
Two first editions from Hawthorne’s series for American children. Hawthorne began writing works for children in 1840 after a woman in the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion (the House of the Seven Gables) pointed out, “‘that old chair in the room; it is an old Puritan relict and you can make a biographical sketch of each old Puritan who became in succession the owner of the chair” (Miller). Elizabeth Palmer Peabody—the sister of Hawthorne’s future wife, Sofia—published these stories when the original publisher, Nahum Capen, withdrew from the project. These are the first two books in the series; the last to be published was Liberty Tree.
Grandfather’s Chair: BAL 7590; Clark A6.1. Provenance: Henry Williams Poor (bookplate).
Famous Old People: BAL 7591; Clark A7.1. Provenance: John A. Spoor (bookplate).
$1,200