Hawthorne
Page 46
I am also obliged to various members of the Hawthorne family: Gail Gardner, Rosemary Hawthorne, the late Randolf Hawthorne, Imogen Howe, Joan Ensor, Sylvia Smyth, Deborah Strong, and, with much pleasure, the remarkable Olcott Deming. I’m grateful to Evelyn Hamby for opening her trunkful of manuscripts to me, to say nothing of her kitchen and living room, and my meals with Alison Hawthorne Deming were a delight I’ll never forget.
I’m also indebted to the late Merton M. Sealts, Jr., a dear friend whom I miss. Rallying his troops to my side, Mert sat through many of my Hawthorne talks and invited me to lecture in 1997 at the University of Wisconsin and at the Oakwood Retirement Community, where he introduced me to the inestimable Hawthorne descendant, Phyllis Hawthorne, and to Emily Dodge. I thank them too for their loving friendship—and for showing me Louisa Hawthorne’s sampler as well as many other Hawthorne family items. Mert also introduced me to another unusual man, Kent Bicknell, a collector of rare discernment and generosity. To him, I owe a debt of gratitude for his willingness to share treasures, even allowing me to cart away a box of special papers; to him and Karen Bicknell, many thanks for allowing me to camp out in their house while I furiously copied manuscripts.
Thanks, as well, to Mother Marie Edward and Sister DePaul at the Rosary Hill Home; to Eve Anderson, president, Thomaston Historical Society and her husband Olaf; to a founding father of Hawthorne studies, the late C. E. Frazer Clark Jr.; to the psychoanalysts, Dr. Louise Kaplan and Dr. Stuart Feder, for lunches and dinners of Hawthorne; to Scott Marshall and Stephanie Copeland, of the Edith Wharton Restoration, The Mount, for their Berkshire support; to Mary Cahill, for her unflagging assistance at Union College’s Interlibrary Loan desk and, what’s more, for sending me unsolicited squibs on Hawthorne and his family.
I am grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities for full fellowships that released me from my teaching duties for years at a time. I’m similarly grateful to the Hertog Fellows Program at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, administered by Patty O’Toole, and for the assistance of Fionn Meade, my own Hertog fellow, in the fall of 1998, and to the Dana Scholarship Fund at Union College, administered by Peter Tobiessen, and to Dana Scholars Jean Rho and Gregory Fox; also, I’m grateful to the ongoing support of Union College’s Humanities Faculty Development Fund. Thanks also to Joshua Perry, for his assistance with permissions, and to the tireless Michelle Tardif, a former student, who spent some of her summer in England in 2001 trying to determine the cause of Una Hawthorne’s death. Actually, I’m obliged to all my students in the Hawthorne seminars I’ve taught over the years at Union College and New York University.
To David Robinson, whom I’ve admired for more years than we’d both like to count, I am grateful for recommending I write the “Hawthorne” chapter in American Literary Scholarship as a boon to my book, which it was. I’m also beholden to the far-flung members of the Hawthorne scholarly community and over the years have appreciated the ready assistance of Thomas Woodson, editor of the Centenary Edition of The Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have also received kind offers of assistance from many others, like T. Walter Herbert and Megan Marshall. The former president of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society, Larry J. Reynolds, first ushered me into its ranks in 1996 with the largesse for which he’s known. More recently, its indefatigable and talented president, Millicent Bell, has consistently offered graceful support—enthusiasm, in fact—for my writing, and I thank her. I also thank her for inviting me to read a paper on Hawthorne at the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2000.I enjoyed a similar boon in 1997 after joining Frederick Newberry, editor of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, and his panel at the American Literature Association: it provided me with Fred’s witty e-mails ever after. Robert Milder insisted I participate in the Melville/Hawthorne panel at the American Literature Association meeting in May 2000, and from this event comes the special issue of ESQ on Hawthorne and Melville. At the recommendation of Benita Eisler, I spoke at the New York Society Library on Hawthorne in 2001, and in 2003 at Bard at the suggestion of Elizabeth Frank. Thanks to them, to all connected with these institutions, and to the folks at the House of the Seven Gables and at C-SPAN, who allowed me to speak on live television about Hawthorne for two hours one icy day in May 2001.
Fortunate in friends, I’d like to thank the remarkable Sybille Bedford, a true inspiration; the extraordinary Richard Howard, for matters more important than literature; the late Kenneth S. Lynn, Honor Moore, Catharine R. Stimpson, and Larry Ziff for their heartening (and often written) support these many years; Kenneth Silverman, a special friend whose talent, advice, and commiseration I value—and exploit. Thanks, also, to the ever-spry Ann Thorne, for putting me in touch with Higginsons and Channings and a great deal else. I’ve also imposed on a number of other friends, who read portions of the manuscript: novelist Christopher Bram, who read all of it with perceptive eye, offering both suggestions and succor; my former editor and longtime friend, the writer Frances Kiernan, who looked at the last chapter with the attention she inevitably shows to language; novelist Ben Taylor, who read the first and last chapters with ebullient wit; and the perspicacious editor/poet/ essayist, Ben Downing, who scoured the first four chapters with his usual clear-eyed precision. Ditto Anna Jardine, still copy editor supreme, on whose conscientiousness and downright smarts I continue to depend.
More than I can say, I’m touched by the many other good friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who’ve given of themselves in ways too numerous to mention: David Alexander, Frederick Brown, Mary Ann Caws, Ed Cifelli, Lisa Cohen, Benita Eisler, Wendy Gimbel, Rosemarie and Peter Heinegg, Don Hymans, Tamar Jacoby, Frederick Karl, the late Carole Klein, Bobbie Bristol Kinnell, the late R. W. B. Lewis, Herbert Leibowitz, Jane Mallison, Marion Meade, the late James Mellow, Hugh Rawson, Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Margo Viscusi, Lois Wallace, Patricia Willis, Susan Yankowitz, and Donald Yannella.
For their love, spunk, and continuous support, especially during my many research visits to Massachusetts (our native state), particularly to Haverhill (my mother’s birthplace) and, of course, to Salem (my father’s), I thank my parents.
I’m deeply indebted to my incomparable agent, Lynn Nesbit, and to her wonderful staff, as well as to the production and design staffs at Knopf, particularly Amy Robbins. But nothing is possible without the considerable skills of my editor, Victoria Wilson, whose kindness is as broad as her intelligence is deep. Thanks, too, to Lydia Grunstra, editorial assistant, for dependability—along with the convincing pretense she didn’t mind my innumerable calls.
Finally, there’s my husband, last because not least. This book is dedicated with love to him. Besides, he’s the very best reader—of all things—I know. And then some.
Notes
Books and articles about Hawthorne are voluminous—and have been appearing at an astonishing rate ever since Hawthorne’s death in 1864. As a consequence, I try to confine my citations to the primary sources consulted or quoted. Otherwise the notes (already lengthy) would be longer than this book. However, I do cite secondary sources when I think they might amplify some particular issue or guide further reading, for I’m obviously indebted to decades and decades of superb critical writing about Hawthorne’s work.
Anyone interested in my evaluation of recent Hawthorne scholarship may consult the annual American Literary Scholarship, 1997–2001, edited by David J. Nordloh and Gary Scharnhorst (Duke University Press). I learned a great deal from writing this chapter during the last five years; and I’m grateful to the editors, two fine scholars quick with humor and help.
I used the Hawthorne family letters in the possession of Evelyn Hamby, with permission, before the archive was sold to Stanford University, where it now resides. With permission, I’ve quoted from these materials, crediting both Mrs. Hamby and Stanford.
In quoting any primary materials, I’ve retained the writer’s original spelling so that the reader may better
hear the author’s voice, and as a consquence I keep the use of [sic] to a minimum.
COMMONLY USED ABBREVIATIONS
The following abbreviations are used for frequently cited names:
ECH: Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hawthorne (mother)
EH: Elizabeth Hawthorne (sister Ebe)
MLH: Maria Louisa Hawthorne
JH: Julian Hawthorne
NH: Nathaniel Hawthorne
SH: Sophia Peabody Hawthorne
RH: Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (Mother Mary Alphonsa)
UH: Una Hawthorne
HB: Horatio Bridge
ED: Evert Duyckinck
RWE: Ralph Waldo Emerson
AF: Annie Adams Fields
JTF: James T. Fields
MF: Margaret Fuller
GH: George Hillard
HWL: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
HM: Herman Melville
EPP: Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
Mrs. EPP: Elizabeth Peabody, mother-in-law
FP: Franklin Pierce
MM: Mary Mann
WDT: William D. Ticknor
For frequently cited libraries or manuscript depositories, the following abbreviations are used:
AAS: American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts
Amherst: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
Antioch: Antiochiana, Antioch College Library, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio Bancroft: Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
BY: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
BPL: Rare Books Department, Boston Public Library, Boston
Berg: Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library, New York
Bowdoin: George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
Butler: Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York
Houghton: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Huntington: Huntington Library, San Marino, California
LC: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
MHS: Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston
Morgan: Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
NHHS: New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire
NYPL: Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, New York
OSU: Rare Books and Manuscripts Library of The Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus
PE: Phillips Library (formerly Essex Institute), Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
Rosary Hill: Rosary Hill Home, Hawthorne, New York
Smith: Peabody Family Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
Stanford: Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California
UVA: Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
The following abbreviations are used for frequently cited books:
Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Hawthorne’s letters published in The Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. William Charvat et al., in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, vols. XV–XVIII (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press), will be cited as C followed by the volume number. I have also provided recipient and date.
American Claimant Manuscripts: The Ancestral Footstep, Etherege, Grimshawe in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. Edward H. Davidson and Claude M. Simpson, vol. XII (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1977), cited as American Claimant Manuscripts.
American Notebooks, ed. Claude Simpson, in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, vol. VIII (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1972), cited as AN.
The Elixir of Life Manuscripts in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. Edward Davidson, Claude Simpson, and L. Neal Smith, vol. XIII (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1977), cited as Elixir of Life.
English Notebooks, ed. Thomas Woodson and Bill Ellis, in the Centenary Edition of the
Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, vols. XXI and XXII (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1997), cited as EN (followed by vol. 1 or 2, to specify volume number). The French and Italian Notebooks, ed. Thomas Woodson, in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, vol. XIV (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1980), cited as FIN.
Our Old Home, ed. Claude Simpson and Fredson Bowers, in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, vol. V (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1970), cited as OOH.
True Stories from History and Biography, ed. Roy Harvey Pearce and Fredson Bowers, in the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, vol. VI (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1970), cited as True Stories.
Hawthorne’s novels, cited by title, all appear in Nathaniel Hawthorne: Collected Novels, ed. Millicent Bell (New York: Library of America, 1983).
Hawthorne’s tales and sketches, cited by title, all appear in Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches, ed. Roy Harvey Pearce (New York: Library of America, 1996), also cited as Tales.
Horatio Bridge, Personal Recollections (New York: Harper & Bros., 1893), cited as Personal Recollections.
James T. Fields, Yesterdays with Authors (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1882), cited as Yesterdays.
Julian Hawthorne, Hawthorne and His Circle (New York: Harper & Bros., 1903), cited as HHC.
Julian Hawthorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1884), cited as NHHW. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, Memories of Hawthorne (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1897), cited as Memories.
CHAPTER ONE: THE PRISON DOOR—INTRODUCTORY
1 The second-born child: Exhibits A and B, Southern District Court Criminal Dockets C 4–5, National Archives, New York City.
2 “always handicap”; “To be the son”: James Russell Lowell to JH, Nov. 28, 1885, in C. E. Frazer Clark Jr., ed., Hawthorne at Auction, 1884–1971 (Detroit: Gale Research, 1972), p. 136; Henry James, “Julian Hawthorne,” in Henry James: Literary Criticism, vol. 1, Essays on Literature, American Writers, English Writers, ed. Leon Edel (New York: Library of America, 1984), p. 295.
3 “This idea is”: The House of the Seven Gables, p. 511.
4 Like him: See MM to Horace Mann Jr., Jan. 8, 1865, Antioch; see also UH to Horace Mann Jr., Oct. 4, 1859, BY.
5 “The more I feel”: UH to EPP, Oct. 4, 1859, BY.
6 Una had worshipped: See SH to Mrs. EPP, June 9, 1850, Berg.
7 “It was impossible”: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Part of a Man’s Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1905), p. 268.
8 “Theirs is the greater”: “Wise Flays Hawthorne,” New York Times, Mar. 13, 1913 p. 3.