THE SCARLET LETTER A ROMANCE by Hawthorne, Nathaniel - 1850

Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1850. Brown cloth, lettered in gilt, stamped in blind. Edgeworn, rebacked with original backstrip laid down and front inner hinge reinforced, collector's bookplate on front pastedown, some soiling and paper residue on rear endsheets, catalogue (1 March) tanned, some occasional old and somewhat obnoxious discolorations in margins and at fore-edge. Just an average copy. First edition (2500 copies printed). There are no points of 'issue' for this title, contrary to popular parlance, but simple variations (including two settings of gathering 21) and loosening of type in the press run resulting in minute variations of no relevance to questions of "issue" in a proper sense of the term. This copy exhibits Clarke's state x1 of pp. 321/2, and state X2 of pp. ii/iii. Hawthorne's most widely read work, and a book now less accessible in agreeable condition than it was a decade ago, when this copy would likely have not garnered a second glance. BAL 7600. CLARK A16.1. GROLIER AMERICAN HUNDRED 59. WRIGHT I:1146.