Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The House of Seven Gables A Romance. Ticknor, Reed, and Fields,, Boston:, 1851.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Description: 4th or 5th Printing Very good in its original, brown, ribbed cloth covered boards with gilt text on the spine, blind stamped boards and light yellow end sheets. A 12mo measuring 7 1/8 by 4 3/8 inches containing 344 pages of text with the publisher's four page catalog dated March, 1851 inserted inside of the front end sheets. The upper 1/4 inch of the cloth at the head of the spine is missing exposing the top edge of the text block. The lower 1 1/2 inch of the first page of the catalog has been torn out. On the first free end page an early prior owner's name appears in ink in a tiny, delicate hand and again in pencil, more boldly, on the title page and a third time on the rear end sheet. On the verso of the last free end page the prior owner penciled in a two line quotation from the book and started a sketch of a woman's head. The pages of the text are free of tanning, but exhibit spots of foxing throughout. This is either a forth or fifth printing of the first edition, with the letter "t" missing on line 25 of page 50 and the and the letter "r" missing on the 25th line of page 278. One of Hawthorne's most famous novels and considered a classic of early American literature. Hawthorne believed this to be his best work, even better than his more famous The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne considered this title to be his best novel. (BAL 7604; Bruccoli/Clark - p. 172)
Seller: Town's End Books, ABAA, Deep River, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, first printing. Publisher's green boards with design in blind to covers, titles in gilt to spine, light yellow endpapers. A very good copy with some rubbing to covers, wear to spine ends, light rubbing and dimming to gilt, inner hinges repaired with endpapers laid back down, closed 2-inch vertical tear along rear outer hinge with glue repair, light soiling to endpapers, and some spotting to title page and throughout. Overall, a solid copy in the original cloth. BAL 7655. Housed in a custom cloth slipcase with folding chemise. True Stories from History and Biography was written by Hawthorne as a means of educating the youth on notable events and figures in American history. In the main story, "The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair," an old man tells his grandchildren the long and winding history of his "strange-looking old chair," which dates back to the Puritans' arrival on Plymouth Rock. In the "Biographical Stories" section of the book, Hawthorne tells engaging tales about some of the most famous British and early American figures, including Benjamin Franklin, Oliver Cromwell, and Sir Isaac Newton, devoting considerable portions of these stories to their childhood days. While this book is somewhat of a departure from Hawthorne's adult classics, like The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of Seven Gables (1851), it has Hawthorne's trademarks of history, moral instruction, and pristine prose.
Seller: B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$525.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Edition. First issue, first printing. first state with all points with the frontis and the engravings in the Original Publisher's gilt pictorial red cloth , titles in gilt to spine, light yellow endpapers. A very good copy slight rubbing to edges a deluxe copy with all edges gilt . Overall, a solid copy in the original cloth. BAL 7655. True Stories from History and Biography was written by Hawthorne as a means of educating the youth on notable events and figures in American history. In the main story, "The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair," an old man tells his grandchildren the long and winding history of his "strange-looking old chair," which dates back to the Puritans' arrival on Plymouth Rock. In the "Biographical Stories" section of the book, Hawthorne tells engaging tales about some of the most famous British and early American figures, including Benjamin Franklin, Oliver Cromwell, and Sir Isaac Newton, devoting considerable portions of these stories to their childhood days. While this book is somewhat of a departure from Hawthorne's adult classics, like The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of Seven Gables (1851), it has Hawthorne's trademarks of history, moral instruction, and pristine prose. This rare copy is housed in a later mylar clear jacket and its gilt red spine is still bright. A pretty copy rare thus
Seller: Hirschfeld Galleries, Saint Louis, MO, U.S.A.
Price: US$962.50 + shipping
Description: First Edition, one of 1000 copies of the September (4th) issue. 8vo, in the original Ticknors style A ribbed brown cloth, decorated in blind on both covers, the spine lettered in gilt with bands in blind, variant E, no priority assigned. vi, [3], 10 - 344 pp. A very attractive and well preserved copy, expertly restored at the spine but retaining nearly all of the original gilt decorated cloth, the text is very clean and fresh for the title, only a few incidents of foxing and with very little evidence of use. One of Hawthorne's most popular books and A central classics of nineteenth-century American literature, AND ARGUABLY THE QUINTESSENTIAL OF AMERICAN GOTHIC. THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES is a pillar of American Renaissance literature, and was a major influence on later authors of both the horror and mystery genres, in fact it continues to be influential even today. Written during the most lucrative period of the author's career, the novel centers on a New England family and their ancestral home. The setting was inspired by the Turner-Inglersoll Mansion, a dark and rather moody gabled house in Salem, Massachusetts which still stands today and offers very popular tours. While set in Hawthorne's time, the novel searches history and reaches back to discern the life that occurred through the years. The house, in Hawthorne's tales is presented as a gloomy mansion, haunted since its construction by unscrupulous dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and death. The House of the Seven Gables was released in April of 1851. Two printings were issued in the first month, a third in May, and a fourth in September 1851; totaling 6,710 copies in its first year. Hawthorne earned 15% in royalties from the $1.00 cover price. After its publication, Hawthorne said, "It sold finely and seems to have pleased a good many people." His friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called it "a weird, wild book" and it met with extreme popularity not only in America, but also in England where it was viewed as kin to Jane Eyre. British critic Henry Chorley noted that, with THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, "few will dispute [Hawthorne's] claim to rank amongst the most original and complete novelists that have appeared in modern times."
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. The House of the Seven Gables. Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, Boston, 1851.
Price: US$1800.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, third issue, one of 2051 copies thus (BAL). Octavo. 344pp., with a four-page publisher's catalogue dated May, 1851 inserted at the front. Publisher's brown decorative cloth stamped in blind on both covers, gilt spine, cream-yellow endpapers. Binder's ticket: "From D. Bugbee's Bookstore and Bindery," and contemporary owner's name in ink on front pastedown. A few tiny nicks at head and tail of spine and corner tips, spine gilt lightly faded, near fine. Along with *The Scarlet Letter*, one of Hawthorne's two great novels, this one more an extension of his classic, allegorical short fiction, based on a curse supposedly set on Hawthorne's own family during the infamous Salem witchcraft trials. An unusually fine and bright, unrestored copy. *BAL* 7604.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.