[Hawthorne, Nathaniel]:

$50,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

FANSHAWE, A TALE. 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 Goodri

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