HAWTHORNE

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, some marks but mainly good condition. Text: Dear Mr. Meredith, | I am going to ask you (if your health and time permit) to do me and many of my countrymen a great favor. | The Centennial of the birth of Nathaniel Hawthorne comes on the 4th.

Within a couple of years of his death Norbury’s nickname was given as ‘the hanging judge’ (see ‘The Georgian Era’, vol.2, 1833), and yet no mention is made of the fact in his entry in the Oxford DNB. The present document is 1p, 4to. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged.

4pp., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The second page carries photographic reproductions of the bas-reliefs of Tennyson and Carlyle, in frames. The third page gives details of the twelve portraits (Carlyle, Tennyson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Dickens, Whittier, Lowell, Thackeray, Bryant, E. A. Poe, Ambriose [sic] Thomas, O. W. Holmes), executed by 'Mr. RALPH BARTLETT GODDARD, the eminent Sculptor', stating that they are available in plaster or bronze, and 'form a most suitable adornment for the walls of a private or public library, schoolroom, or study'.

Dimensions of paper 23 x 17 cm; dimensions of image c.16 x 10.5 cm. In fair condition on lightly-aged paper. Captioned at foot 'Nathaniel Hawthorne'. Head and shoulders illustration, with Hawthorne looking at the viewer with his head slightly towards his right shoulder. Placed in modern 34 x 26.5 cm cream card frame with gold and light-green border. Professionally executed in a traditional style. The artist's monogram, centred beneath the illustration, consists of a stalk topped by simple flower design, and with the date '26' at the foot.