BIB_ID
288452
Accession number
MA 611.13
Creator
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864.
Display Date
1855 Apr. 20.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, with the Wakeman Collection, 1909.
Description
1 item (3 p.) ; 20.5 cm
Notes
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).
Provenance
By descent to Sophia Hawthorne; by descent to Julian Hawthorne; Stephen H. Wakeman; purchased by Pierpont Morgan with the Wakeman Collection, 1909.
Summary
Saying that he wants to vindicate Sophia "as to all those accusations of neglecting her father and family"; telling her that he would "enlighten [her] as to the relation between husband and wife ... but this conjugal relation is one which God never meant [Elizabeth] to share, and which therefore He apparently did not give [her] the instinct to understand"; explaining that he "did not mean to close all correspondence forever, but only on that particular subject" [subject unclear from this letter]; refusing to "withdraw one word of [his] last letter."
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