Manuscript Fragment from The Scarlet Letter Leads Nathaniel Hawthorne Auction
Christie's
Items from the Lisman sale
Christie’s will be presenting the sales of two major collections of American books and manuscripts next month, The Bruce M. Lisman Collection of Important American Literature: Part One on June 15 - where the centerpiece is the finest collection of Nathaniel Hawthorne in private hands - and The Magnificent Library of Norman Bobins: Part One on June 16.
Of particular interest is the Hawthorne family's first edition copy of The Scarlet Letter, together with the only known autograph manuscript of any portion of the novel in private hands (estimate $100,000 - $150,000). This is a fair copy of the final paragraph from Chapter 2 when Hester Prynne is on the scaffold wearing the scarlet letter A and holding her baby Pearl. No other autograph manuscript of The Scarlet Letter is recorded at auction. There are various other association copies of The Scarlet Letter going under the hammer.
Also included in the sale is a set of printed proofs of the novel, annotated in Hawthorne’s notoriously poor handwriting (estimate $600,000 - $800,000) and the writer's childhood Latin dictionary ($4,000 - $6,000) and copy of Sallust ($5,000 - $8,000), both with marginalia. According to Christie's the sale is the largest and most significant sale ever of Hawthorne papers.
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Christie's
The Scarlet Letter manuscript
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Christie's
The Scarlet Letter proof
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Christie's
Hawthorne's copy of Sallust
Other highlights from the collection of former Wall Street executive Bruce Lisman who ran for governor of Vermont in 2016 include:
Phillis Wheatley Peters' first edition of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Washington Irving' s Salmagundi ($40,000 - $60,000) and The Sketch Book ($40,000 - $60,000), both in original wrappers, along with autograph manuscripts and letters
James Fenimore Cooper's The Water Witch, printed in Dresden
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a rare first issue of Evangeline in original boards
Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque inscribed to his cousin
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in original parts from the National Era ($30,000 - $40,000) as well as an autograph letter appealing to help an enslaved minister purchase his freedom ($15,000 - $25,000)
Walt Whitman, an autograph manuscript from Leaves of Grass
The Bruce M. Lisman Collection of Important American Literature: Part Two will take place online June 2-16, charting the story of American literature from the 18th century through the 19th century, closing with additional Hawthorne material. The sale is especially strong in female authors including Ann Eliza Bleecker, Susanna Rowson, Hannah Foster, Catharine Sedgwick, Lydia Maria Child, and Leonora Sansay.
