The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-28
FAME OF OLD BOOKS.
EARLY EDITIONS WHICH ARE
GREATLY VALUED BY COL
LECTORS.

Written as "'POt BOiIcrs"-WOrks of
ThOreau, LOngfelIOw, Lowell,
Whittier and other American Au-
thOrs Bring Figures That Prove
How Popular They Are.
From the New York Mail and Express.
Nathaniel Hawthorne said of h mself
that he was for many years the most OBJ
scure man of letters in America None
worked harder for smaller. gains than he
until at last the success of THE Scarlet
Letter made his future modestly secure.
He would have liked never to work at
pot-boilers, but after he had publish
ed "Fanshawe," at his own expense, at
the age of twenty-five, be was obliged to
do so more or less for many years. He
was so much discouraged by the failure
of his first venture in fiction that he used
to burn his stories as fast as he wrote
them for a time; he suppressed most of
the few hundred copies of "Fanshawe"
that were published. One of those that es-
capped into the world was sold for $40 at
this weeks Bangs auction sale Of the
collection of Mr.. W. II. Arnold; it is a
little book in morocco case. Hawthorne
would scarcely have believed in 1926 what
would happen to that little book in 1901
The bidding started at 500 and went
briskly on. at first by ffties and then
by tens until the book was knocked down
to the fortunate buyer, who called out
Delivered! went forward 20 get his pur-
chase, and was greeted by a little burst
Of
people at an auction form an audience!
POt-BOiIers at First.
The work of Hawthorne in the twenty
four years that elapsed between the pub
LEGATION of "Fanshawe'' and that of 1.-THE
Scarlet Letter. included many pot-boiiers.
He was glad to get 800 for his work on
Peter Parley's Universal History" One
copy of that book brought exactly that
price at the sale the. other day. Good
rich offered to pay Hawthorne $500 year
for working on his American Magazine Of
Useful Knowledge" although he never
got all of his pay the young man did a
great deal of anonymous work for that
periodical; because this is known the
old magazine is sought for by many col
lectors. Goodrich paid him $35 for THE
Gentle Boy" one copy of il brought $50
at the auction. What Hawthorne received
for that delicate tract, THE Celestial Rail-
road may be known to some one; but it
certainly was less than 1924, the price paid
for the copy sold in its morocco case here
in New York, in this year of grace.
1t is fortunate for the world that Eliza
beth Peabody had such an understanding
of the genius of her self-distrustful. SEN
sitive brother-iu-law, such an affection
for him and such tireless energy in pro-
noting his opportunities. She was one
NJ frut IN er;e ~ 81
still she lived in Sa.em; later when she
had a bookshop in Boston, it was she
who induced Fields, the publisher to
go to see Hawthorne and persuade him
to show him the manuscript of 1.-THE Scar
let Letter" Then it was she who en-
couraged Hawthorne to believe that he
could do as the publisher wished, and
make a book of what was still only a
short story. Mrs. Browning wrote a
poem that tells the true story of Eliza
beth Peabody's devotion to Hawthorne
when she learned it face to face from
lips of authority. That story is told ia
Bertha In the Lane" 1t was Elizabeth
Peabody who was the chief aid of mis-
genius in bringing him up from his Sc
cusion into success, where her lovely sis
ter his wife, was then, as ever, his per-
sonal blessing and joy.
Whittier once said-and this has not
Hawthorne while he lived in Salem. and
declared Hawthorne came in looking as
If he had just come up from down cellar.
where he had been living" This air of
a sensitive. pallid recluse wore away in
later life with happiness and success and
relief from anxiety.
Bidding Competitive.
1t becomes noticeable. sometimes, after
oh hon ut 49, IL
bidding is largely competitive between two
bidders. There is, of course. plenty of
general bidding. but the struggle between
two powers is often quite marked This
was seen at the Range sale. especially in
the bidding for the copy of "Fanshawe."
The Bryant and Emerson sales had pre-
ceded it. 1t is to be imagined that the
New York poet-editor would have "edted
into the fire. (as Mark Twain says the
manuscript copy of his early verse, which
vas the first thing offered at this sale. IL
he had ever got hold of II during his life
'imeT he would have looked upon it's ait
erary dement's, not upon its value to a
collector. Yet would he not have been
privately pleased that even fragment Of
hts earliest work was worth because il
was his work. two gold eagles and two
dollars more? Even the early verse of a
man who wrote "Thsnatopsis" in the
morning of his life could not be altogether
worthy Of cremation at its makers hand.
The highest price paid for a Bryant first
clifton was s39. brought by Club Bindery
edition OF his satire. THE Embargo"
Emerson is only to-day coming into full
recognition as a poet When he was on
earth people thought Longfellow and
Lowell and whittier greater poets than
he especially Longfellow, with his facile
rhymes and echoes of foreign culture.
Emerson's first hand wrenching from ma
ture Of her mystic secrets and bis SIM
pie. often rugged. lines ga not seem like
poetry 70 the critics or the people az the
time he wrote, nor 20 the other poets
either. But he h. being ranked where he
belongs now. lie had such serene con-
sclousness Of his poetic power that he
would readily have believed any prophet
who might have told him that the original
Photograph manuscript Of his "rhrenodY"
hs longest poem. would sell al auction in
New York. within sixty years for 500
why nOif one can hear him aak With
~ placid smile Of 70 philosopher shot
through with p CLEAN Of Yankee fore
thought an1 Vs.
ken YoFk Repi Them,
There wee ihHi for che lovef ~
f4alfu IA ..flrr tUut Cd fUIUuaNrIDl "a