HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Twice-Told Tales. Boston: American Stationers Co., 1837.
12o (188 x 120 mm). 4 pp. publisher's advertisement at beginning, 16 pp. at end. (Some spotting, one or two pages loose, rear free endpaper torn away.) Original black cloth, embossed with quatrefoil ornaments, gilt-lettered on spine (head and foot of the spine chipped, joints starting); modern quarter red morocco gilt slipcase. Provenance: Duncan C. Pell (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. One of 1,000 copies, with the page number on the table of contents for "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" incorrectly given as page 78. Here, Hawthorne "advanced the cause of criminologists to the very threshold of modern technique." Vincent Starrett said of the story "Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe": "it comes close to becoming a detective story in the purest sense" and Edgar Allan Poe said the story is "vividly original and managed most dexterously" (see Queen's Quorum, p.10). BAL 7581; Clarke A2.1; Wilson 129.
HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Twice-Told Tales. Boston: American Stationers Co., 1837.
12o (188 x 120 mm). 4 pp. publisher's advertisement at beginning, 16 pp. at end. (Some spotting, one or two pages loose, rear free endpaper torn away.) Original black cloth, embossed with quatrefoil ornaments, gilt-lettered on spine (head and foot of the spine chipped, joints starting); modern quarter red morocco gilt slipcase. Provenance: Duncan C. Pell (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. One of 1,000 copies, with the page number on the table of contents for "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" incorrectly given as page 78. Here, Hawthorne "advanced the cause of criminologists to the very threshold of modern technique." Vincent Starrett said of the story "Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe": "it comes close to becoming a detective story in the purest sense" and Edgar Allan Poe said the story is "vividly original and managed most dexterously" (see Queen's Quorum, p.10). BAL 7581; Clarke A2.1; Wilson 129.
