AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS)
Rome: 16 May 1858. Letter. One-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED as "Nath. Hawthorne" on a 10-1/2" x 8-1/2" sheet folded in half with integral transmittal leaf addressed in his hand. Hawthorne makes arrangements for a summer in Florence. After the end of his tenure as U.S. Consul at Liverpool, Hawthorne spent the next two years travelling in France and Italy. After spending the winter in Paris and Rome, Hawthorne hoped that a summer in Florence would offer him an opportunity to concentrate on his writing. To that end, he entrusted sculptor Hiram Powers to assist with arrangements for accommodations there. Here he writes to a potential landlord in Florence: “I beg to inform you that I have a letter of credit on your house from Messrs. Baring Brothers of London and as I purpose [sic propose] being in Florence in the course of a week or two. I must ask the favor of you to engage an apartment for us in the Casa della Bello, Via Florence, for a term of two months certain, provided it can be had at the rate of $40 per month, or less. Mr. Hiram Powers will have the kindness to confer with you, and point out the particular apartment which should suit me. I intend to leave Rome about the 24th inst. and shall be willing to take the apartment from the first of June.” The same day, he wrote to Powers requesting that he assist in “negotiations on my behalf, about a suite of apartments in Florence. [Their mutual friend, Mr. Akers] tells me that there is a house nearly opposite your own, in the Via Fornace, which he thinks would be well adapted to my family, and might be had for about $40 per month” (LETTERS, CENTENNIAL EDITION: 17:144). The letter offered here is not published in LETTERS, CENTENNIAL EDITION. Small loss at top right corner with mild toning; a few ink smudges; folds from mailing. Very Good. Item #022115
Price: $3,750.00