Description
The first edition, first issue of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in custom binding by Bayntun Riviere.
Small octavo, iv, 322pp. Full red morocco, thin gilt border and decorative “A” stamped on covers. Along spine there are five raised bands, gilt embellished compartments, and the title in gilt. All edges gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers. Bound by Bayntun Riviere in Bath, England, with imprint along bottom of the front endpaper. This is the first issue, with the publisher’s four page advertisement dated “March 1, 1850,” “reduplicate” instead of “repudiate” on page 21, and lacking the preface which first appeared in the second edition. The advertisements and the original cloth covers and spine are bound in at the rear. A fine example, internally and externally bright. (BAL 7600) (Clark A16.1) (Grolier American 59)
