Our Old Home, the Newton copy, inscribed by Hawthorne
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1863
Original brown cloth. Fine. Slipcase.
First edition. The fine A. E. Newton copy of Our Old Home, inscribed by Hawthorne on the front endpaper: “Dr Gason 12 via della Mercede.” Dr John Gason, Fellow of the College of Physicians in Ireland, is listed at Via della Mercede in various guidebooks from the 1850s-60s. The 1869 Handbook of Rome and its Environs notes that “Dr G, who is also an accoucheur, practices during the summer months at the baths of Lucca.” The Hawthornes and Dr Gason were both in Rome in the late 1850s, and possibly had mutual friends from Bagni di Lucca.
BAL 7626. Clark A24. The present copy is the second printing, with p. 399 blank.
$4,500