# Is "Biographical Stories for Children" by Nathaniel Hawthorne a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Biographical Stories for Children by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Tappan and Dennet, 1842) is identified by: First edition, first printing, published by Tappan and Dennet, Boston, 1842.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First 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 points (BAL 7595
- Clark A9.1.a1) rather than any single dramatic misprint
- Publisher imprint reads Tappan and Dennet
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Nathaniel Hawthorne |
| Publisher | Tappan and Dennet |
| Year | 1842 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first printing, published by Tappan and Dennet, Boston, 1842 |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First 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 points (BAL 7595; Clark A9.1.a1) rather than any single dramatic misprint.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Biographical Stories for Children* by Nathaniel Hawthorne a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/biographical-stories-for-children
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.