Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife: A Biography by Julian Hawthorne (2 volumes)

Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1885. Early printing, ex libris Charles B. Foote. Leather bound. 505; 465pp. Duodecimo [20 cm] 3/4 brown leather with marbled paper over boards. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers. With minimal rubbing to the extremities. The text block of volume 1 is cracked at the beginning, but the book is very sturdy. The frontispiece guard of this volume is brittle and chipped at the edges. The front pastedowns have Charles B. Foote's custom designed decorative Nathaniel Hawthorne themed bookplates. Charles B. Foote was a prominent collector of literary first editions. A catalogue of his collection was produced entitled Catalogue of the Unique Collection Made by Charles B. Foote, Esq., Of This City: Of First Editions of the Following American Authors, R. W. Emerson, Nath'l Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry W. Longfellow, Jas. Russell Lowell, Edgar Allan Poe, and John G. Whittier, to Be Sold at Auction Friday, November 23, 1894. It is stated in the New York Times, November 5, 1894, "It is announced that Bangs & Co. will sell late this month Mr. Charles B. Foote's remarkable collection of first editions of Emerson, Hawthorne, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, Poe, and Whittier. Mr. Foote is one of the collectors who entered the American field very early, and thus was able to gather together what is probably an unsurpassed collection. He has been remarkable as an enthusiast at his avocation. Some years ago he brought to this office a copy of Hawthorne's "Fanshawe," one of the rarest of American first editions, and the pride shown by him in its possession was an agreeable thing to look upon." An attractive set once owned by a true Hawthorne enthusiast.