Fanshawe Tale (1 results)

One of the classic rarities of 19th-century American literature and "a minor bibliographic treasure" (Gross). First edition of the author's first book, published anonymously at his own expense. John E. Kramer, Jr. identifies Fanshawe as "the first American college novel." Hawthorne likely began writing the novella while still a student at Bowdoin College, which was almost certainly Hawthorne's inspiration for Harley College, Fanshawe's fictional setting. Hawthorne underwrote the cost of the production of the edition of one thousand copies. Although its publication was widely advertised, and a number of reviews appeared, Fanshawe sold poorly, and a substantial number of copies were destroyed in the publishers' warehouse when it burned in 1831, thereby wedding circumstance to obscurity in further warranting a degree of rarity not usually associated with a book printed in such a large edition. Ashamed perhaps of its lack of polish and maturity, Hawthorne later urged friends and family to keep secret the fact of his authorship and to destroy their copies of the novel. Even his wife, Sophia, did not learn of its existence until after her husband's death. Fanshawe nevertheless displays many of the hallmarks of Hawthorne's later writings and reflects what literary critic Nina Baym describes as Hawthorne's "intent to Americanize the gothic." Despite Hawthorne's reluctance to have his name associated with the book, it was because of its publication that Samuel Goodrich sought out his contributions for the Token, an association that eventually also led to his involvement with the American Magazine. Fanshawe was not reprinted again in Hawthorne's lifetime, and its acquisition has long presented a major hurdle for collectors and those catering to their needs. In the foreword to his 1939 More First Books catalogue, John S. Van E. Kohn lamented that "we have still to experience that fabled acme of bibliopolic bliss which springs from contact with a Fanshawe or a Tamerlane.," and the occasions of the 1965 and 1972 Seven Gables catalogues again did not permit public display of that bliss. Paul Seybolt's catalogue did not claim a copy, nor did copies appear on such disparate, but logical, occasions as the McKee or Martin sales. Laid into this copy is the lower portion of a t.l.s. from David Randall of Scribners to a former owner describing it with uncharacteristic over-exuberance as then "certainly the finest [copy] on record." and advising that no repairs be performed to the hinge. Also laid in is the clipped description from the catalogue of the Bishop sale. The Bishop collection was sold at auction in four parts in 1938-9. There are two occurrences of dropped type that appear within the edition, with no priority assigned, and this copy exhibits both 33:19 and 52:34 with the type intact. CLARK A1.1. BAL 7570. P.D. HOWE CATALOGUE NH8. WRIGHT I:1141. WILSON (THIRTEEN AUTHOR COLLECTIONS) I:121. Robert Eugene Gross, "Hawthorne's First Novel: The Future of a Style" in PMLA Vol. 78, no. 1 (March 1963), pp.60-68. Kramer, The American College Novel: An Annotated Bibliography (New York, 1981), p. ix. Manning Hawthorne, "Nathaniel Hawthorne at Bowdoin" in New England Quarterly, Vol. 13, no. 2 (June 1940), pp.246-79. Nina Baym, "Hawthorne's Gothic Discards: Fanshawe and 'Alice Doane'" in Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal, Vol. 4 (1974), p.107. F.O. Matthiessen, American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman (New York, 1941), pp.203-4. Edwin Haviland Miller, Salem is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Iowa City, 1991), pp.77-84. Original half plum muslin and paper boards, printed paper label. Boards lightly rubbed, sunned, and stained. Textblock expertly reattached to boards, new stitching. Early tidemark at upper and lower forecorners of boards and text block, receding somewhat and ending prior to the title-leaf and to the ninth leaf from the end. Scattered foxing and spotting. Three bookplates, including those of Frank Maier and Cortlandt Bishop. Very good. Untrimmed. In a morocco pull-off case.