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Notes
Now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, this leaf was formerly owned by Stephen H. Wakeman, but was not included in the Wakeman sale catalogue (American Art Association, 28-29 April 1924). See the Centenary Hawthorne volume of The Scarlet Letter (1962) for a facsimile of the title page. See also W. H. Cathcart, A Bibliography of Hawthorne (1905), p. 33.
Possibly dated 5 November. MS, Houghton Library, Harvard University. My colleague Professor William Charvat told me about the postscript.
Rome, 27 February 1904. Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS. Am. 1745.1 (4). My thanks to Dr. William Bond and Professor Fredson Bowers for calling this document to my attention.
First Editions of Ten American Authors Collected by J. Chester Chamberlain . . . February 16 and 17, 1909 . . . The Anderson Auction Company . . . Part I, #170: "An interesting fact about 'The Scarlet Letter' is that the original MS. (with the exception of the title) was destroyed by Hawthorne. In a letter from Mrs. Annie Fields to Robert S. Rantoul, June 13th, 1904, she says in part: '. . . Hawthorne himself told me that he put the manuscript of "The Scarlet Letter" up the chimney, never thinking that it would be of any value.'"
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