3 “When sorrow”: MM to Sarah Forbes, May 29, 1864, MHS.
4 “I, being heir”: “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” in Tales, p. 175.
5 By that spring: Conolly insisted that Hawthorne’s visit to the graves of the Connecticut “regicides,” Edward Whalley, William Goff, and John Dixwell, inspired his story “The Gray Champion.” See Horace Conolly to William D. Northend, transcribed by Miss Pendleton, Nov. 1901, Bowdoin. See also Manning Hawthorne, “Hawthorne and ‘The Man of God,’ ” Colophon 2:2 (winter 1937), p. 263.
6 “a fair prospect”: Quoted in Benjamin Lease, That Wild Fellow John Neal (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1972), p. 133.
7 “the superstitions”: NH to Samuel Goodrich, Dec. 20, 1829, C XV, p. 199.
8 He mailed a few: The fullest account of Goodrich’s business practices and its relation to Hawthorne appears in Wayne Allen Jones, “The Hawthorne-Goodrich Relationship,” Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal, 1975, ed. C. E. Frazer Clark Jr., pp. 91–140.
9 “which seemed to me”: Samuel G. Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime (New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1856), vol. 2, p. 270.
10 More likely: See Cleaveland, History of Bowdoin College, p. 304. Of course, by the time these men looked backward, there was no dearth of self-congratulatory friends eager to credit themselves with engendering Hawthorne’s career. Regardless, Cheever and Hawthorne knew each other at Bowdoin and in Salem, although, as Hawthorne’s sister pointed out, they were “not in the … same set [at Bowdoin].” Cheever supported capital punishment and abolition, and in 1835 published a temperance article about a fictional deacon who owned a distillery. John Stone, the Unitarian deacon who in fact did own a distillery, sued for libel. Cheever was flogged and jailed for thirty days, during which time Hawthorne, who did not share his views about temperance or abolition, visited him, according to EH. See EH to JTF, Dec. 26 [1870], BPL.
11 “unsettled”: Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime, vol. 2, p. 271.
12 “You do not anticipate”: NH to Samuel Goodrich, Dec. 20, 1829, C XV, p. 199.
13 Other stories: See also Richard P. Adams, “Hawthorne’s Provincial Tales,” New England Quarterly 30 (1957), pp. 39–57, and Baym, The Shape of Hawthorne’s Career, pp. 30–40, whose inclination, as she puts it, is “to stick with the known group [which includes “The Wives of the Dead”] and reject the others.” I am not convinced about putting “The Wives of the Dead” in this group. “The Wives of the Dead” appeared in an early Token but the rest were published separately in 1835, after Hawthorne abandoned any hope of a collection. The Centenary editors assume that the publication date precludes their inclusion in Provincial Tales; I disagree. However, “The Wedding-Knell” may also have been one of the stories, or a version of one, originally written for Provincial Tales.
14 “It was near”: “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” in Tales, p. 68.
15 “Deep as Dante”: “Hawthorne and His Mosses, by a Virginian spending July in Vermont,” Literary World, Aug. 17, 24, 1850, pp. 125–27, 145–57, in Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Contemporary Reviews, eds. Buford Jones and John Idol (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994), p. 113.
16 “without the help”: “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” in Tales, p. 87. Exegesis of this story is a cottage industry. My discussion profits from Colacurcio, The Province of Piety, pp. 135–53; Roy Harvey Pearce, “Robin Molineux on the Analyst’s Couch: A Note on the Limits of Psychoanalytic Criticism,” Criticism 1 (1959), pp. 83–90, and T. Walter Herbert Jr., “Doing Cultural Work: ‘My Kinsman, Major Molineux’ and the Construction of the Self-made Man,” Studies in the Novel 23:1 (spring 1991), pp. 20–27. Readers interested in a historical interpretation of the novel should consult Colacurcio and Peter Shaw, American Patriots and the Rituals of Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1981), pp. 18–21, 126–29, 210–31.
17 “the loudest there”: “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” in Tales, p. 87.
18 He rejected “Alice Doane”: Samuel Goodrich to NH, Jan. 19, 1830, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 132.
19 “born to do”: NH to EPP, Aug. 13, 1857, C XVIII, p. 89.
20 For his part, Goodrich: Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime, vol. 2, pp. 269–70.
21 Goodrich paid him: The stories are: for the Token dated 1831, “Sights from a Steeple,” “Dr. Bullivant,” and “The Haunted Quack”; for the Token dated 1832, “The Wives of the Dead,” “Roger Malvin’s Burial,” “Major Molineaux,” and “The Gentle Boy”; and “The Canterbury Pilgrims,” “The Seven Vagabonds,” and the sketch “Sir William Pepperell” for the 1833 Token. See also Jones, “The Hawthorne-Goodrich Relationship,” p. 102.
22 “particularly” he rationalized: Samuel G. Goodrich to NH, May 31, 1831, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 132.
23 Historical sketches: I tend to agree with Donald C. Gallup (“On Hawthorne’s Authorship of ‘The Battle-Omen,’ ” New England Quarterly 9:4 [Dec. 1936], pp. 690–99), who places “The Battle Omen” among NH’s early sketches. It appeared in the Gazette on Nov. 2, 1830; “The Hollow of the Three Hills” on Nov. 12, 1830; “Sir William Phips” on Nov. 23, 1830; “Mrs. Hutchinson” on Dec. 7, 1830; “An Old Woman’s Tale,” Dec. 21, 1830; and “Dr. Bullivant,” Jan. 11, 1831. The Gazette’s Federalist/Whig politics may have influenced Hawthorne’s attitudes toward these figures, or at least deepened his own satire. By this time the Gazette was edited by NH’s friend Caleb Foote. NH to Carey & Lea, Jan. 27, 1832, C XV, p. 222.
24 “He never liked”: EH to JTF, Dec. 26 [1870], BPL.
25 “was resolved not”: JH, “Hawthorne’s Philosophy,” holograph, Huntington.
26 He’d planned: EH to UH, Feb. 26, 1865, transcribed by JH, Bancroft.
27 “I nourished”: EH to JTF, Dec. 12 [1870], BPL; “The Journal of a Solitary Man,” in Tales, pp. 490–91.
28 So he got hold: EH to JTF, Jan. 28, 1871, BPL; Personal Recollections, p. 68.
29 His argument …“medium” … “naked mind”: “Mrs. Hutchinson,” in Tales, pp. 18–19. Note that Hawthorne uses almost identical language in the “Custom-House” introduction to The Scarlet Letter. Overall the sketch also bears comparison with Harriet Vaughn Cheney’s “A Peep at the Pilgrims,” to which he may be responding; see Reynolds, Beneath the American Renaissance, p. 344. And the matter of Hawthorne’s identification with women is provocatively explored by Robert K. Martin, “Hester Prynne, C’est Moi,” in Engendering Men, eds. Joseph Boone and Michael Cudder (New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 122–39.
30 “It is one of my”: “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” in Tales, p. 183.
31 “a flash”: “Mrs. Hutchinson,” in Tales, p. 23.
32 “relinquishing the immunities”: “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” in Tales, p. 183.
33 But “Mrs. Hutchinson”: The monomaniacal mother of the gentle boy is somewhat more complex. For an extended, if reductive, discussion of her role, see Miller, Salem Is My Dwelling Place.
34 Funeral bells: I refer to “The Wedding-Knell,” “The May-Pole of Merry Mount,” “The White Old Maid,” “The Prophetic Pictures,” and “The Minister’s Black Veil.”
35 “I very often say”: Richard Manning to Mary Manning, Feb. 18, 1831, PE.
36 “The loss of Brother”: Robert Manning to Mary Manning, Aug. 22, 1830, PE.
37 “Brother William”: Mary Manning to Priscilla Dike, Mar. 17, 1831, PE.
38 “on account of a book”: From this leg of the journey came the story “The Canterbury Pilgrims,” in which a young couple fleeing the Shakers meet with a group of pilgrims, who gloomily foretell what the couple can expect from the clutches of the world. Merchant, yeoman, yeoman’s wife, and poet: all lament their fortunes, most notably the poet, who cries “shame upon the unworthy age.
” See “The Canterbury Pilgrims,” in Tales, p. 159. NH to FP, June 28, 1832, C XV, p. 224.
39 With two hundred … To judge from: NH to ECH, Sept. 16, 1832, C XV, p. 226. Sketches like “The Notch of the White Mountains,” “Old Ticonderoga,” “My Visit to Niagara,” and “The Canal-Boat,” published in 1835–36, provide a rough itinerary; some of these sketches were later republished as “Sketches from Memory” in MOM. The best reproduction, though speculative, of NH’s itinerary is the excellent article by Nelson F. Adkins, “The Early Projected Work of Nathaniel Hawthorne,” pp. 119–55. My discussion is indebted to this essay. For an overview of the framework of The Story Teller and an itemization of what section of the collection may have been published where, see also Turner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chap. 7.
40 “extemporaneous fictions”: “The Seven Vagabonds,” in Tales, p. 152.
41 “dull race”: “Sketches from Memory,” in Tales, p. 347.
42 “I had not of”: “The Seven Vagabonds,” in Tales, p. 141.
43 “I manufactured”: “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” in Tales, p. 183.
44 He flirts: “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” in Tales, p. 185.
45 “We kept together”: “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” in Tales, p. 182.
46 According to his sister-in-law: Moncure Conway, Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne (London: Walter Scott [1890]), p. 32.
47 These sketches: “The Canterbury Pilgrims” and “The Seven Vagabonds,” along with the biographical sketch “Sir William Pepperell,” all appeared in the 1833 Token, which had merged with the Atlantic Souvenir, bought by Goodrich the previous year. “Sketches from Memory by a Pedestrian, No. 1” appeared in the New-England Magazine, November 1834, with the second installment appearing the following month as “Sketches from Memory by a Pedestrian, No. 2.” “Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe” was published alone in Twice-told Tales in 1837, and the remainder of the “Sketches from Memory” were published in Mosses from an Old Manse, second edition, as “Passages from a Relinquished Work.” See also the argument that Park Benjamin, not Joseph Buckingham, was responsible for Hawthorne’s early publication in the magazine: Lillian B. Gilkes, “Hawthorne, Park Benjamin, and S. G. Goodrich: A Three-Cornered Imbroglio,” Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal, 1971, pp. 83–112. Having looked at the Benjamin archive at Columbia University, I tend to agree with her.
48 “So they tore up”: Conway, Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne, p. 32.
49 “It had been long”: “Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man,” in Tales, p. 497. Published originally in the American Monthly Magazine, July 1837, this section, “My Return Home,” appears to have been written earlier. The rest of the story provides a frame, evidently added later, to correspond in part with “The Devil in Manuscript.” See note below.
50 “It was only after”: EH to JTF, Dec. 26 [1870], BPL.
51 It features a cadaverous: Personal Recollections, p. 49. Elizabeth Peabody assumed Hawthorne was given the name by classmates who recognized his talent and beauty, but HB insisted Hawthorne took the name himself. The section of the Story Teller series in which Oberon appears, “Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man,” was not published until July 1837 in the American Monthly Magazine. (Interestingly, Hawthorne never republished it in his collected stories.)
52 Hawthorne’s Oberon: A motive for Oberon’s return and his outlook also lies in Walter Scott’s “The Lay of the 14th Minstrel,” canto 6: “Breathes there the man with soul so dead”; Hawthorne quotes it in his story. Says Oberon, “I am to die ‘Unwept, unhonored, and unsung’ ” (“The Journal of a Solitary Man,” in Tales, p. 490).
53 “Adopt some great”: “Fragments of the Journal of a Solitary Man,” in Tales, p. 499.
54 “I have become”: “The Devil in Manuscript,” in Tales, p. 331. The story was published in the November 1835 issue of the New-England Magazine along with “Sketches from Memory I,” evidently another piece of The Story Teller. The following month the magazine printed “Sketches from Memory II”; both detailed his journey through Vermont and western New York.
55 “the beaten path,” “a strange”: “The Devil in Manuscript,” in Tales, p. 331.
56 “like a father,” “Would you”: The Devil in Manuscript,” in Tales, pp. 333, 334.
57 “the obscurest”: Preface to Twice-told Tales, in Tales, p. 1150.
58 “public opinion,” “and felt”: “Passages from a Relinquished Work,” in Tales, p. 176.
59 “In the depths”: “The Haunted Mind,” in Tales, p. 202; in “The Devil in Manuscript” this tale is obliquely mentioned as one of those to be burned.
60 And with a psychological: See [William Henry Channing], “Mosses from an Old Manse,” Harbinger 3:3 (June 27, 1846), pp. 43–44, quoted in Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Contemporary Reviews, p. 75. The phrase was much liked and often quoted by Sophia Hawthorne.
61 Nowhere is this more: Published in the 1836 Token and appearing the preceding fall. In “One Hundred Fifty Years of ‘The Minister’s Black Veil,’ ” Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 13:2 (fall 1987), pp. 5–12, Lea Bertani Vozar Newman suggests the story could’ve been written in 1829, but other scholars suggest that the tale may have been part of the Story Teller series. See also Adkins, “The Early Projected Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne,” pp. 119–55.
62 “two folds,” “probably did not”: “The Minister’s Black Veil,” in Tales, p. 372. Two excellent and very different interpretations of the story may be found in Colacurcio, The Province of Piety, pp. 314–85, and J. Hillis Miller, Hawthorne and History (Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1991), esp. pp. 56–128.
63 “He has changed”: “The Minister’s Black Veil,” in Tales, p. 373.
64 “I can’t really feel”: “The Minister’s Black Veil,” in Tales, p. 372.
65 “that a simple”: “The Minister’s Black Veil,” in Tales, p. 374.
66 “Have I dreaded”: “The Canterbury Pilgrims,” in Tales, p. 159.
67 “So far as I am”: Preface to Mosses from an Old Manse, in Tales, p. 1147.
CHAPTER SEVEN: MR. WAKEFIELD
1 “Crafty nincompoop”: “Wakefield,” in Tales, p. 294.
2 Wakefield is a drab; “his place”: “Wakefield,” in Tales, p. 297; “Sights from a Steeple,” in Tales, p. 43.
3 “Amid the seeming”: “Wakefield,” in Tales, p. 298.
4 And Boston women: FP to George Pierce, July 30, 1830, Bowdoin. Among other sources I’ve gleaned much information about Boston from William and Jane Pease, Web of Progress: Private Values and Public Styles in Boston and Charleston, 1828–1843 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1985).
5 “It is no small point”: HB to NH, Feb. 20, 1836, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 133.
6 “a truly Yankee idea”: “Fashionable Wigs,” American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge 2 (Boston: Bewick, 1836), p. 284.
7 “I approve”: NH to EH, Mar. 22 [23], 1836, C XV, p. 243.
8 “There was little”: “The Duston Family,” American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge 2 (Boston: Bewick, 1836), p. 397.
9 “You should not make”: NH to EH, Mar. 22 [23], 1836, C XV, p. 243.
10 “You may extract”: NH to EH, Feb. 10, 1836, C XV, p. 234.
11 “The Bewick Co.”: NH to EH, Feb. 10, 1836, C XV, p. 234.
12 “Ebe should have”: NH to LH, Mar. 3 [1836], C XV, p. 239.
13 “I am ashamed”: NH to LH, Feb. 5, 1836, C XV, p. 232.
14 “For the Devil’s sake”: NH to LH, Feb. 15, 1836, C XV, p. 236.
15 “a good-natured sort”: NH to LH, Feb. 15, 1836, C XV, p. 236.
16 “If you are willing”: NH to EH, May 5, 1836, C XV, p. 2
45.
17 “It is a poor”: NH to EH, May 12, 1836, C XV, p. 247.
18 For eight contributions: “The Great Carbuncle” may have been one of the Story Teller series.
19 “The brevity”: For pertinent correspondence, see NHHW, vol. 1, p. 137. “Editorial Notice,” in Turner, Hawthorne as Editor, p. 224.
20 This is how: “Lost Notebook,” Aug. 31, 1836, in Miscellaneous Prose and Verse, C XXIII, p. 148.
21 “Brighter days”: Personal Recollections, p. 70.
22 “My worshipful self”: NH to EH, Jan. 25, 1836, C XV, p. 230. The Register reprinted “The Gentle Boy” in May 1835 and on June 4, 1835, “The Ambitious Guest.” (It’s not clear whether Hawthorne was paid.)
23 “What is the plan”: HB to NH, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, pp. 138–39.
24 “It is a singular”: Personal Recollections, p. 70.
25 “How few have”: [Park Benjamin], “Critical Notices,” American Monthly Magazine 8 [n.s. 2] (Oct. 1836), pp. 405–7. Benjamin knew that Hawthorne intended to publish just such a volume—perhaps he’d even encouraged him to do so—and, knowing this, took the opportunity to compare Hawthorne and Nathaniel Willis, to Hawthorne’s advantage to goad Samuel Goodrich, for Willis was Goodrich’s friend.
26 “I fear you are”: HB to NH, Oct. 22, 1836, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 142.
27 “You have the blues”: HB to NH, Oct. 16, 1836, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 140.
28 “desperate coolness”: HB to NH, Oct. 22, 1836, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 142.
29 “It will cost”: Samuel G. Goodrich to HB, Oct. 20, 1836, Bowdoin.
30 “You will have more”: Personal Recollections, p. 73.
31 “I expect, next summer”: Personal Recollections, p. 73.
32 “an editorship”: HB to NH, Feb. 1, 1837, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 149.
33 “I rejoice”: HB to NH, Dec. 25, 1836, quoted in NHHW, vol. 1, p. 147.
34 “best worth offering”: NH to HWL, Mar. 7, 1837, C XV, p. 249.
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