Complete Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, The

Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1900. American Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne in Full Morocco

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. The Complete Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. With Portraits, Illustrations, and Facsimiles. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, [1900].

Old Manse Edition. Twenty-two small octavo volumes (7 1/2 x 5 inches; 190 x 127 mm.). Photogravure frontispieces, vignette titles, and plates from photographs and from drawings by Anna Whelan Betts, Jessie Willcox Smith, Alice Barber Stephens, Howard Pyle, and others.

Publisher’s full brown morocco over (truncated) boards. Covers decoratively bordered in gilt, spines decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, top edge gilt, others uncut, green endpapers. Spines uniformly faded, some rubbing to joints. A very good set.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was an American novelist and short story writer known for exploring history, morality, and religion, often with anti-Puritan themes. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, he attended Bowdoin College, graduating in 1825. His early novel Fanshawe (1828) was later suppressed, but his Twice-Told Tales (1837) gained recognition. After working at the Boston Custom House and briefly joining the Brook Farm community, he married Sophia Peabody in 1842. The couple lived in Concord, Salem, and the Berkshires before settling at The Wayside.

Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) established his literary reputation, followed by other novels. A political appointment as consul took him to Europe before returning to Concord in 1860. His works, part of the Romantic and dark romanticism movements, explore humanity’s inherent sin and moral struggles. He also wrote a biography of his college friend Franklin Pierce, aiding his 1852 presidential campaign. (Inventory #: 06148)