Solomon Columbus Rhodes and Company.

£250 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

novelist's son commits mining fraud The first edition of this pamphlet promoting investment in the fictitious mining company Solomon Columbus Rhodes. The author, Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934), was the son of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a talented journalist and writer in his own right. He used his skill and family name to sell half a million shares of stock in non-existent mining companies in Canada before being discovered and convicted of mail fraud, spending a year in prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. First edition; 12mo (17 x 12 cm); portrait frontispiece to half-title verso, centre gathering loose; original pale green wrappers, stamped in blue, stapled; [32]pp.

• Binding: Hardcover

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