They are what Lisman himself would call ‘impossibly rare’. Even in this context, however, these proofs from The Scarlet Letter are the crown jewel. From Hawthorne's early publication in a Christmas literary supplement called The Token, to revered literary works from the 18th and 19th centuries, like as an inscribed copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, and a copy of Washington Irving’s Salmagundi with original wrappers, the collection gives a look into how post-revolution American literature appeared in its time.

Lisman Collection tells the story of early American literature. ‘There are books from his library, letters, extremely scarce presentation copies, the manuscript excerpt from The Scarlet Letter, and the page proofs - these page proofs are particularly noteworthy, as they are not something we generally see survive from the 19th century.' ‘This is the best Hawthorne collection in private hands,’ says Christie’s Specialist in Books, Manuscripts and Archives, Heather Weintraub. Lisman Collection of Important American Literature: Part One, Christie’s is proud to present the page proofs for Hawthorne’s ground-breaking novel, annotated in the author’s own hand, demonstrating the winding trajectory from idea to opus. Offered this June as part of The Bruce M. The eloquence and mastery with which Hawthorne addresses the moral and ethical nuances of the story led to its initial run of 2,500 copies being sold in ten days, and propelled the author to the immediate literary fame that endures to this day. It centres around Hester Prynne, a woman who gives birth to a child out of wedlock while living in a Puritan society in New England. The publication of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter 36 years earlier had set a new foundation for American literature, helping to establish the novel as the preeminent form of writing for the century to come.

‘Nothing more or less, it must be confessed, than life itself… A soul is in it is conceived on the spiritual plane.’

‘What lies beyond or above an imitation of life?’ wrote Nathaniel Hawthorne’s son, Julian, in an 1886 review of The Scarlet Letter.

The scarlet letter book