HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Letter signed ("Nathl Hawthorne") to Mary Howitt, "Consulate USA," Liverpool, 11 May 1854.

One page, bifolium, 202 x 126mm, body of letter in the hand of his secretary, (moderate soiling along top margin).

Commingling offical and literary business to assist the poet Mary Howitt. With the body of the text in the hand of his secretary at the U.S. Consulate in Liverpool, Hawthorne forwards on a package received from his Boston publisher to : "I have today sent a little package recd by me from Mr. Fields, addressed to you, to Mr. John Miller 2 Henrietta Street Covent Garden, London." Howitt (1799-1888) was an English poet best known today for The Spider and the Fly. Primarily working in children's literature, she translated several tales from Hans Christian Andersen. The present letter may have concerned Mary Howitt's daughter Anna's book, An Art Student in Munich, published by Hawthorne's publisher Ticknor and Fields in 1854. Published in Letters, Centennial Edition, 17:216.