Hawthorne, Nathaniel

Autograph letter signed ("Nath^l Hawthorne"), one page on stationery embossed "Paris" (7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.; 185 x 120 mm), Concord, Massachusetts, 12 November 1852, to Willis P. Hazard, declining an invititation to deliver a lecture. Mounted within a French mat, together with a reproduction of Hawthorne's portrait by Charles Osgood.

The notoriously reclusive author declines an invitation to deliver a public lecture. Apologetically he writes to Willis P. Hazard (probably the Philadelphia publisher): "I heartily wish that it were in my power to comply with your request for a lecture; but I am wholly unaccustomed to that or any other mode of personal appearance before the public. Owing to this positive disability, (for it amounts to nothing less) I am often compelled to decline invitations similar to that with which your society has honored me."