In May of the year 1850, In Memoriam was privately printed for the use of friends, and soon afterward was published in the present form, at six shillings. A second and third editions were issued in the same year. They are alike in all particulars except for the correction of two literal misprints. Though the book was anonymous, the authorship was never in doubt.
A circumstance connected with its publication, though not bibliographical in its bearing, demands a passing word. "If 'In Memoriam' were published," Hallam Tennyson says in his life of the laureate, "Moxon had promised a small yearly royalty on this and on the other poems, and so my father had decided that he could now honourably offer my mother a home. Accordingly after ten years of separation their engagement was renewed ... Moxon now advanced £300—so my uncle Charles told a friend,—at all events £300 were in my father's bank in his name." With this and their small incomes combined they decided to marry. The marriage took place June 13, the month that saw the publication of "In Memoriam."
Octavo.
Collation: vii, 210 pp.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
(1804-1864)
90. The | Scarlet Letter, | A Romance. | By | Nathaniel Hawthorne. | Boston: | Ticknor, Read, And Fields | MDCCCL.
James T. Fields, in his little life of Hawthorne, tells of a visit to Salem to see the author. He goes on to say:
"... I caught sight of a bureau or set of drawers near where we were sitting; and immediately it occurred to me that hidden away somewhere in that article of furniture was a story or stories by the author of the 'Twice-Told Tales,' and I became so positive of it that I charged him vehemently with the fact. He seemed surprised, I thought, but shook his head again; and I rose to take my leave ... I was hurrying down the stairs when he called after me from the chamber, asking me to stop a moment. Then quickly stepping into the entry with a roll of manuscript in his hands, he said: 'How in Heaven's name did you know the thing was there? As you have found me out, take what I have written, and tell me, after you get home and have time to read it, if it is good for anything ...' On my way up to Boston I read the germ of 'The Scarlet Letter'; before I slept that night I wrote him a note all aglow with admiration of the marvellous story he had put into my hands, and told him that I would come again to Salem the next day and arrange for its publication."