New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-03-21
HAWTHORNE THE MAN.
SOME SKETCHES OF THE NOVELIST AT
HOME.


MEMORIES OF HAWTHORNE. BY Rose law
thorne Lathrop octave. Pr. XII. 4s2 Housn-
ton. MiHlin & Co
Mrs. Lathrop has not pretended TO paint MI
ished portrait of her father. and her volume Is OF
the most fragmentary character. being nothing
more nor less than collection of personal docu-
ments with no thread OF consecutive narration
binding the parts together. Yet this is welcome
and serviceable supplement to the biography OF
the novelist written by his son Julian That
work, well executed as 1t is, has of necessity a
certain formal outline. Mrs. Lathrop eschews
formality. and in spite of a tendency TO write or
everyday matters In a slightly strained and some
times CORN THAN manner she gives us In his most
natural phases Hawthorne the man, hawthorne
the husband. father and curiously detached
member Of society as 1t existed FOR him IN SALEM
In Concord, in Liverpool. London and Italy. 10
get at him thus 1t is necessary to read a great
deal that is trivial and even irrelevant. but there
Is on the whole 80 much that is eloquent of mis-
personality In the book before us that the author
may claim TO have buildcd better than she knew
Her attitude toward her parents is, indeed one
of the strongest proofs OF her intimate under
standing of their natures She confesses that IA
the youngest child in the house she Knew her
father chiefly ir moods less playful end com>
radelv than those which her brother and sister
had enicyed but she has Enthusiastically the Haw-
thorne spirit: she writes almost exactly as heT
mother wrote. Mrs. Hawthorne adored her nus
band Mrs Lathrop adored them both. Accord
ing'y there is little If any difference between her
intermittent euogies OF her father ana the letters
from Mrs. Hawthorne which make up the DulK
Of this volume and are themselves largely MADE
I'D Of notes on her husbands character and ex-
perences From the first page TO the last this Is
a fervid tribute to a man as much admired by his
family as he was beloved.
Mrs Hawthorne as has already been made
known through the biography to which we have
referred was peculiarly fitted to be the wife OF
a man Of genius. There are two ways OF statirs
this fact Mrs Lathrop observes that the hish-
est principles of though, and action are CON
stantIy danced about and caressed by my mothe:
in all her letters as we imagine Greek maiden
paving cheerful homage to the beautiful statues
of the gods" 1t seems more accurate 10 point
out that Miss Peabody was woman or warm
imagination. who drank eagerly all the thoughts
and Influences which flowed from the transcen'
dental figures Of Salem and Boston; who was ex-
cited In her quiet New England life by the
holiness and metaphysical dlvagations or FINER
son Jones Very. the Channings and people of
on the ou vive for uplifting sensations. When
she met Hawthorne her ongings were satisfied
When she married him she became Of the
happ,est women in tho world. But we think
perfectly dispassionate analysis Of her reveals
less Of positive intellect ial power than OF
quick. more or less emotional constituencies to
beauty in it's diverse forms, moral, sensuous
philosophical and so on through an endless list
The point is important in a study of her rela-
tons to Hawthorne. These letters give an I'M
preston Of one who could never have failed
him in sympathy for any movement OF his mind
or Imagination, but who nevertheless lad he--
self no creative gifts, great mental origi NJ
ity She touches the reader. In short. not so
much for her own sake as for her ardent ii ,nti-
cation of herself with her husbands genius end
fortunes IT is just this artless absorption Of
hers in the ideal of her life that gives rs some
of the most picturesque and living glimpses Of
Hawthorne TO be found anywhere. There Is no
hint of exaggeration In her praises From the
pen Of almost any other writer there would seem
q hint OF mere rhetorical indulgence in such pict-
ures as she draws, but her sincerity is unim-
peachable and one accepts the rather Eorid
sketches in coed part. When she writes or the
skating episodes at Concord. early in their mar
ried life. she says frankly that she considers her
husband IA rare sight, gliding over the Icy
stream" and then she continues:
Often other skaters appoar-younS men ana
! boys--who principally interest me as foils 10
my husband who. in the presence OF nature,
| loses all shyness and moves regally like king.
One afternoon Mr.. Emerson ard Mr.. Thoreau
went with him down the river Henry Thoreau
| is an experienced skater. and was figuring
| dthyrambic dances and Bacchic leaps on the
| ice-very remarkable but very ugly msthought.
| Next him followed Mr. Hawthorne. who,
| wrapped ia his cloak, moved like a self-impelled
! Greek statue. stately ard grave. Mr.. Emerson
closed the line. evidently too weary to hold him
self erect. pitching head-foremost, half lying on
! the air He came In to rest himself: and said to
| me that Hawthorne was tiger, hear. lion,
| in short a satyr, and there no firing him
| out and he might be the death Of a man like
himself And then, turning upon me that kind
! ling smile for which he Is so memorable, he
added: "Mr. Hawthorne is such an Ajax who
cope with him."
Tho beauty OF this almost doting passage Hes
| In It's accuracy. The reader who came upon ii;
unprepared by any previous acquaintance with
the central figure would not unnaturaly put IL
down as the outcome of a blind devotion. But
even the threshold OF her consummate hap
pinoss Mrs Hawthorne saw her husband with
clear eyes II would be hard TO find more
exact description OF him than that "self-
PEELED Greek statue. stately and grave" The
line was written in 1912 Some eighteen years