This edition, one of only thirty copies, is a compilation of Hawthorne’s journal entries written when he spent twenty days home alone with his son Julian. Lovingly signed “Papa,” the book paints a heartwarming picture of childhood as Hawthorne cheerfully records his son’s energetic and sometimes unpredictable wanderings around the house and garden. Enclosed in this book is a copy of a letter from the writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Sophia Peabody, Hawthorne’s wife, in which Longfellow insists that this journal, though not originally intended for publication, should not only be published, but also used by future biographers to paint a complete portrait of Hawthorne as a human being.

Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscripts