The Life and Genius of Nathaniel HawthorneStearns, Frank Preston
General
The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stearns, Frank Preston
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864; Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
About July 10, 1860, the scholars of Mr. Sanborn’s school, male and
female, gave an entertainment in the Town Hall, not unlike Harvard Class
Day. Mrs. Hawthorne and her eldest daughter appeared among the guests,
and attracted much attention from the quiet grace and dignity of their
manners; but there was an expression of weariness on Miss Una’s face,
which contrasted strangely with the happy, blithesome looks of the
school-girls. Some idea of the occasion may be derived from a passing
remark of Mrs. Hawthorne to a Harvard student present: “My daughter will
be happy to dance with you, sir, if I can only find her.”
In September Hawthorne wrote to James T. Fields: [Footnote: Mrs. J. T.
Fields, 118.]
“We are in great trouble on account of our poor Una, in whom the bitter
dregs of that Roman fever are still rankling, and have now developed
themselves in a way which the physicians foreboded. I do not like to
write about it, but will tell you when we meet. Say nothing.”
Miss Una was evidently far from well, and her father’s anxiety for her
sensibly affected his mental tone.
He was invited at once to join the Saturday Club, popularly known at
that time as the Atlantic Club, because its most conspicuous members
were contributors to that periodical. Hawthorne did not return in season
to take part in the Club’s expedition to the Adirondack Mountains,
concerning which Doctor Holmes remarked that, considering the number of
rifles they carried, it was fortunate that they all returned alive. The
meetings of the Club came but once a month, and as the last train to
Concord was not a very late one, Judge Hoar had his carryall taken down
to Waltham on such occasions, and thence he, with Hawthorne and Emerson,
drove back to Concord through the woods in the darkness or moonlight;
and Hawthorne may have enjoyed this as much as any portion of the
entertainment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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