Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Autograph letter signed with initials : Salem [Mass.], to his sister Louisa, 1819 Sept. 28.

BIB_ID
288413
Accession number
MA 611.1
Creator
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864.
Display Date
1819 Sept. 28.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, with the Wakeman Collection, 1909.
Description
1 item (2 p., with address) ; 25.5 cm
Notes
Addressed to "Miss Maria L. Hathorne, Raymond, Maine."
Part of a collection of 19 autograph letters signed from Nathaniel Hawthorne, an engraving of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a typescript letter signed from his son, Julian Hawthorne. Items in the collection are described in 21 records (MA 611.1-21).
With postmark and seal.
Provenance
By descent to Sophia Hawthorne; by descent to Julian Hawthorne; Stephen H. Wakeman; purchased by Pierpont Morgan with the Wakeman Collection, 1909.
Summary
Telling her that he does "not know what to do with [him]self" in Salem and wishes that he "was but in Raymond and [he] should be happy"; listing books he has read, including [Sir Walter Scott's] Waverley, [Ann Radcliffe's] The mysteries of Udolpho, [Tobias Smollett's] The adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom and The adventures of Roderick Random, and the Arabian Nights; quoting some lines of poetry; telling her she may show this letter to their mother, Elizabeth Hawthorne.