THE AUTOGRAPH EDITION OF HAWTHORNE’S WORKS, ONE OF ONLY FIVE SPLENDIDLY BOUND SETS ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS HAND-COLORED PLATES, SOME OF WHICH ARE SIGNED BY VARIOUS ARTISTS INCLUDING PYLE, HASSAM AND WILLCOX SMITH, WITH AN ORIGINAL DOCUMENT SIGNED BY HAWTHORNE

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. The Writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1900. Twenty-two volumes. Octavo, contemporary full green crushed morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated boards and spines, raised bands, red morocco doublures, watered silk endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $18,000.

The Autograph Edition of Hawthorne’s Works, number 299 of only 500 copies signed by both Hawthorne’s daughter, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, and the publisher. One of only a select number of sets issued with a Custom House document signed by Hawthorne bound into Volume I. This is also one of only five sets splendidly bound by the Riverside Press in an elaborate Roger Payne-style morocco-gilt binding, and one of a select number of sets with frontispieces in double suite, each one beautifully hand-colored and signed by the artist, including such noted illustrators as Jessie Willcox Smith, Howard Pyle and Childe Hassam.

The original document bound into Volume I is signed by Hawthorne as the United States Consul at the Port of Liverpool and dated 1854. Appointed to the consulship in 1852 by close friend President Franklin Pierce, Hawthorne served as Consul until 1857. Beautifully illustrated with over 130 photogravures representing the works of 38 different artists, this is one of only a select number of sets with frontispieces in double suite, one of each beautifully hand-colored. Each frontispiece photogravure is also signed in pencil by the artist. Includes novels, short stories and sketches, as well as passages from the American Note-Books and Notes of Travel. With an introduction by Hawthorne's daughter, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop. A writer and distinguished humanitarian, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop converted to Catholicism in 1891, and after taking vows as a Dominican nun in 1900, she founded a refuge to care for patients with incurable cancer in New York, raising funds for her charitable works through various publications of her father's works. Volume VII, The House of Seven Gables, is number 438 of the same edition, and is bound in matching green leather and matching spine but with slightly different gilt on the boards, no doublures, and without the second hand-colored frontispiece. Clark B20.

Interiors fine, expert restoration to bindings on a few volumes. An exquisite set.