Books

Boston, MA: Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1850. [American Literature] FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with an UNRECORDED state of the ads. Octavo (18 x 12cm) pp.[iv]; 322, title page printed in red and black. Earliest state of the text with the following points; 'reduplicate' p.21 l.20. 'characterss' p.41 l.5. 'Catechism' p.132 l.29. 'known of it' p.199 l.4. Publisher's brown cloth binding with gilt titles and blind decoration. Contents clean, rear paper joint cracked, engraved bookplate of Donald S. Tuttle, neat cloth repair to head and tail of spine, light wear to corners. Faint stamp to endpaper together with contemporary inscription (April 1850). The advertisements in this copy are dated October 1849 (not recorded by Jacob Blanck -most are dated March 1850). Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic investigation of the American mind; a tale of repentance, repression and guilt in seventeenth century Boston. Clark and Pittsburgh [A16]; Bibliography of American Literature [7600].

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is considered one of Nathaniel Hawthorne's most famous works. It is a historical romance set in the puritanical Massachusetts Bay Colony during the mid-17th century.