The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1904-07-20

works are shortly to revive the move
to collect funds for the purchase Of
a monument to mark the site Of his
residence in Lenox, Mass.
A few years ago the movement gain
ed some Roadway, but was blocked
by interference by the owner of the
property where the house stood, who
was not in sympathy with the plan.
Recently 1t was announced that the
plan was again to be suggested to
Berkshire lovers of the novelist, and
that the site of the shrine to which
worshipers of genius made their sum
mer and autumn pilgrimage until the
house was burned June %, 1890, is
to be marked by suitable shaft.
Its sight is almost as much sought,
for the view from 1t remains as lovely
as when they soothed and renovated
him, after hours of intense labor on
THE House of Seven Gables" and
"Tanglewood Tales" Tanglewood is
there yet, and so Is his memory Mr..
Hawthorne's biographer says of the
cottage that at was far from COM
Portable residence; but he had no
means of obtaining a better one.
Meantime he could do what he was
sent into the world to do. so long as
he had the mere wherewithal to live"
He himself says OF 1t, this Is certain
/ ly the most wretched and inconveni-
ent little howell that | ever put my
head In" There was much, however,
TO qualify these gloomy statements.
The house stood on the north shore
OF the beautiful lake which Mrs. Sig
Quincy christened THE Stockbridge
Bowl" 1t was within the territorial
limits of Stockbridge, but near the
village of Lenox, so that he received
his mail and dated his letters there.
In all his biographies Lenox is spoken
of as his home in Berkshire. The
room in which he did his literary
work was the front room on the left
of the picture and commanded one OF
the most exquisite views of the lake
The desk upon which he wrote has
for some years been the relic first
inquired for in the historical section
of the Berkshire athenaeum at Pitts
field. 1t Is of plain design, but Its
material is mahogany, richly coloret
by age. It Is not very large, but Is
so compact in its construction that 6
novelist would find complete room fol
all his machinery and material, ex
cept, of course, books of reference
within short arms length.
When Mr.. Hawthorne came to the
little red cottage by the Stockbridg,
lake, in the early summer of 1850, tn,
Scarlet Letter" had been published
eight months. The first edition o
5000 copies was sold in ten days; IT
fame was ringing through Englan,
and America, and the rapid sale con
tinued.
Before the publication of the grea
work he was by no means an obscure
author or unappreciated by the hes
publishers and critics, although hi
tales were not of a class to win tn
paying" favor of a sensatiou-cravini
and not over-educated public.
Even 1.-THE Scarlet Letter" did no
do that to the extent that vastly In
ferior works Of others did; but 1t plaC
ed him, in the judgment of the arb
traitors of literary fame in Europe an
America, with the front rank OF tn
: worlds men Of genius.
. Mr.. Hawthorne's study could boas
OF nothing except his presence in tn
+ morning and the picture out of tn
window in the evening"" but that wa
surely something, as he pronounce
3 this view by "far the finest in a
Berkshire" Moreover, for furniture
+ it had Mrs. Hawthorne's long otto
n man, newly covered with red, and a
: antique center table which lost on
leg in its journey to Salem" and tn
secretary now in the Berkshire ath,
I naeum.
n The objectionable apartment was tn
u guest chamber, which she describes a
y having "a very ugly, bare floor. full {
d knots, and a bedstead full OF col
fusion" Such was the home in whic
Nathaniel Hawthorne lived from tn
o early summer of 1850 until the earl