HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Grandfather’s Chair: A History for Youth. Boston: E.P. Peabody, 1841. BAL 7590; Clark A6.1. 16mo (121 x 80mm). (Scattered thumbing). Original plum cloth with black printed label on the front cover (bumped, a few stains, endpapers foxed); modern black pull-off case. Provenance: Henry Williams Poor (bookplate).

— Famous Old People. Boston: E.P. Peabody, 1841.
BAL 7591; Clark A7.1. 16mo (121 x 80mm). (Toned, scattered stains). Original plum cloth with black printed label on the front cover (faded, bumped, a few spots, endpapers foxed); modern custom quarter morocco slipcase and chemise. Provenance: John A. Spoor (bookplate).

Two first editions of Hawthorne’s series for children. Hawthorne began writing works for children in 1840 after a woman in Turner-Ingersoll Mansion (the House of the Seven Gables) pointed out, “‘that old chair in the room; it is an old Puritan relict and you can make a biographical sketch of each old Puritan who became in succession the owner of the chair’.” (Miller, 172). These collections of short stories met with some difficulty during printing, and were subsequently taken on by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (E.P. Peabody), Hawthorne’s future sister-in-law, who completed process. See Edwin Haviland Miller’s Salem is My Dwelling Place: a Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1991).