Nathaniel Hawthorne First Editions

• Fanshawe: A Tale — 1828 · Marsh and CapenHawthorne's first book, published anonymously at his own expense in October 1828 by the Boston firm Marsh and Capen, in an edition of about 1,000 copies. Hawthorne quickly regretted the book, urged friends and family to destroy their copies, and denied authorship for the rest of his life; a large portion of the remaining unsold stock was then lost in an 1831 fire at the publisher's premises, leaving fewer than 30…. Fanshawe was not reprinted in Hawthorne's lifetime after its withdrawal; the first reprint did not appear until 1876, as Fanshawe, and Other Pieces (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company), twelve years after Hawthorne's death, and all editions since carry modern publishers' imprints, never the 1828 Marsh and Capen title page.
• Twice-Told Tales — 1837 · American Stationers Co. / John B. RussellFirst edition, single volume, 1837, in publisher's brown embossed cloth with the title gilt on the spine; imprint of the American Stationers Co., John B. Russell (printed by Freeman and Bolles), with a publisher's circular device on the title page. Hawthorne's first book to bear his name on the title page. Copies appear with either 12 or 16 pages of ads at the rear, with no established priority. The expanded 1842…. American true first, 1837, one volume. The 1842 two-volume James Munroe edition is enlarged and is a distinct later edition, not the true first. Verify the 1837 American Stationers imprint. Later collected-works printings exist; the genuine first carries the 1837 American Stationers / John B. Russell imprint and the circular title-page device.
• Grandfather's Chair: A History for Youth — 1841 · E. P. PeabodyFirst of the three original 1841 volumes making up Hawthorne's 'Grandfather's Chair' series (the other two, Famous Old People and Liberty Tree, were issued as separate books the same year before all three were later collected as The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair). Published in Boston by E. P. Peabody -- Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, sister of Hawthorne's future wife Sophia, operating from her bookshop at 13…. Later 19th-century reprints of the combined Whole History of Grandfather's Chair (issued by Ticknor, Fields and successors) are bound uniformly with Hawthorne's other juvenile works in standard cloth series bindings, not the original plum basket-weave cloth of the separate 1841 first parts.
• Biographical Stories for Children — 1842 · Tappan and DennetFirst edition, first printing, published by Tappan and Dennet, Boston, 1842. It collates 12mo, 161 pages, framed as a blind father telling his son the boyhood stories of Benjamin West, Isaac Newton, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Cromwell, Benjamin Franklin, and Queen Christina. One of the scarcer Hawthorne juveniles, its identification rests on the Tappan and Dennet Boston 1842 imprint and the BAL/Clark collational…. Later combined reprintings of Hawthorne's works for children rebind this title together with Grandfather's Chair and other juvenile pieces under uniform publisher's cloth, distinct from the separate 1842 Tappan and Dennet first issue.
• Mosses from an Old Manse — 1846 · Wiley and PutnamFirst edition, published June 5, 1846, as numbers 17-18 of Wiley and Putnam's 'Library of American Books,' issued in two states -- cloth (two volumes bound as one) and paper wrappers (two separate volumes). The true first printing, per Clark's descriptive bibliography, exhibits every recorded first-state point in first binding state A, including matched Wiley & Putnam advertisement leaves listing eighteen titles…. The revised and expanded 1854 Ticknor, Reed & Fields edition adds further tales and resets the text entirely; it should not be mistaken for the original two-part 1846 Wiley and Putnam first edition, which is identifiable by its Library of American Books numbering and matched advertisement leaves.
• The Scarlet Letter: A Romance — 1850 · Ticknor, Reed & FieldsFirst edition, first printing of 2,500 copies, Ticknor, Reed & Fields, Boston, 1850, in brown cloth with blind-stamped covers. The most cited first-printing reading is 'reduplicate' for 'repudiate' at page 21, line 20; scholars note this arose from two settings of the gathering containing page 21, so it is best described as a first-printing textual reading rather than an absolute point of issue. The first…. US true first edition, Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850. The first printing of 2,500 copies sold quickly and a second printing of 2,500 followed within weeks. The second printing ADDED Hawthorne's preface (dated March 30, 1850) responding to the controversy over 'The Custom-House' sketch, in which he reprinted the introduction without change; the presence of that preface indicates the second printing, not the first. Numerous later reprints exist. A first printing must bear the 1850 Ticknor, Reed & Fields imprint and the brown blind-stamped cloth, and must LACK the added preface note that distinguishes the second printing. Treat any single textual reading cautiously, as scholars dispute its reliability as an issue point.
• A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys — 1851 · Ticknor, Reed, and FieldsAlthough the title page is dated 1852, the true first edition was actually published in November 1851 by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston, in a printing of 3,067 copies, Hawthorne's retelling of six Greek myths framed as tales told by the Williams College student Eustace Bright at Tanglewood. The first printing is identified by the misprint 'lifed' for 'lifted' on page 21, line 3; a second printing, ordered…. Countless later illustrated 'gift book' reprintings of A Wonder-Book (Victorian and 20th-century) carry different illustrators' plates and publishers' names; none reproduce the original Ticknor, Reed, and Fields 1851/'52-dated first printing with the uncorrected 'lifed' misprint on page 21.
• The House of the Seven Gables — 1851 · Ticknor, Reed & FieldsFirst edition, first printing of 1,690 copies, Ticknor, Reed & Fields, Boston, 1851 (BAL 7604), in brown cloth with the publisher's name gilt-stamped on the spine. First-printing points: the advertisement catalogue at the FRONT (bound between the endpapers) is dated March 1851 in the earliest state, and the type is battered on page 149. Later states carry ads dated May 1851, and subsequent printings carry ads…. US true first edition, Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1851. There is no prior UK edition affecting priority. The first printing was 1,690 copies (April 1851); three further printings that year brought the first-year total to 6,710 copies, so 6,710 is the year's aggregate, not the first-printing quantity. Later Houghton, Riverside, and other reprint-house issues are common. A first printing must bear the 1851 Ticknor, Reed & Fields imprint, the front advertisement catalogue dated March 1851, and the battered type on page 149; ads dated May 1851, October 1851, or January 1853 indicate a later state or printing.
• The Blithedale Romance — 1852 · Ticknor, Reed & FieldsFirst American edition in publisher's brown cloth, 1852, Ticknor, Reed & Fields imprint, with the rear ad catalogue. A recognized issue point on the Boston edition is the copyright page reading 'Massachusetts' positioned directly opposite the words 'do not wish' on the first page of the Preface. The London Chapman & Hall two-volume edition was issued about a week earlier to secure English copyright. Precedence by date belongs to the London Chapman & Hall two-volume edition, published 7 July 1852, which preceded the Boston Ticknor, Reed & Fields edition of 14 July 1852 by roughly a week. Collectors distinguish the first English from the first American; the English is the earliest by date. Later single-volume reprints lack the two-volume London format and lack the 1852 Boston imprint and rear catalogue.
• The Snow-Image and Other Twice-Told Tales — 1852 · Ticknor, Reed, and FieldsFirst edition, published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston (title page dated 1852, though the copyright page carries an 1851 date), in a printing of 2,425 copies issued simultaneously with a London edition. Collates [3]-273 pp., 8vo; the true first printing carries the earliest (January 1852) state of the publisher's advertisement catalogue bound in at front. Bound in publisher's ribbed brown cloth ('style…. Though dated 1852 on its title page, the Boston (Ticknor, Reed, and Fields) sheets were released within days of Henry G. Bohn's London edition, whose title page is dated 1851; the two are generally treated as issued essentially simultaneously in December 1851, with the Boston printing not clearly following the London one despite their differing title-page years. Later Ticknor and Fields reprintings, along with Victorian-era anthology series that regrouped short fiction by theme, do not reproduce the original 1852 ribbed-cloth binding or the dated January 1852 ad catalogue.
• Tanglewood Tales, for Girls and Boys; Being a Second Wonder-Book — 1853 · Ticknor, Reed, and FieldsFirst American edition, first printing, published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston, 1853, the month following the English (Chapman & Hall) edition -- publication was deliberately delayed so the English house could issue first for copyright reasons. Two distinct 1853-dated print runs exist: roughly 3,000 copies printed by mid-August but withheld from sale until September 20, and a further 800 copies printed…. The English Chapman & Hall edition was deliberately published first (for copyright purposes), with the American Ticknor, Reed, and Fields edition following about a month later even though both are dated 1853. Later Ticknor and Fields (and successor) reprints combine this text with A Wonder-Book under a single cover or reset it with different illustrations; these lack the specific 1853 ad-catalogue dating and copyright-page imprint states described above.
• The Marble Faun; or, The Romance of Monte Beni — 1860 · Ticknor & FieldsFirst American edition in two volumes, publisher's cloth, 1860. The true first American is issued WITHOUT the appended explanatory Conclusion (called the Postscript in the English line), which Hawthorne added shortly afterward to answer readers' questions; in the first printing Volume II ends without that Conclusion. Presence or absence of the appended Conclusion and the rear ad catalogue help fix the printing. Precedence by date belongs to the London Smith, Elder three-volume edition titled 'Transformation; or, The Romance of Monte Beni' (early 1860), which preceded the Boston Ticknor & Fields 'The Marble Faun' (two volumes, 1860). The American first lacks the added Conclusion, which appears in later printings of both lines. Single-volume and later printings postdate the two-volume first; the English title 'Transformation' identifies the UK line.

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