Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. His ancestry extended back to the Colonial period in America, and this ancestry was a major influence on his work. He went to Bowdoin college where he studied literature and was able to meet other New England contemporaries at the time. Hawthorne was a part of the Dark Romanticism movement and was influential in the gothic literary movement. He also was a part of Transcendentalism movement in America, and he even started a commune based upon his experimental way of living. Transcendentalists believed that everyone has good in them inherently, but, as Hawthorne grew older, he separated himself away from this movement. His work, however, often reflects the ideas about morality and righteousness felt by other authors in the Transcendentalist movement. Hawthorne’s books often discussed moral questions and guilt, looking at how guilt doesn’t just affect one person but can affect a whole community. His most famous book, The Scarlet Letter, addresses these questions directly. It was one of the first mass-produced novels in America and was a bestseller. His other major works are Twice-Told Tales, The House of Seven Gables, and the Blithedale Romance. 

Twice-Told Tales (1837) is a collection of short stories; it originally started off as eighteen stories, but twenty-four more stories were added to it in a later edition. The stories in Twice-Told Tales talk about Colonial America and display Hawthorne's curiosity in moral inquiries, even as they also have a gothic twist to them. Our copy of Twice-Told Tales was published in 1900. It contains an added page at the front of the volume that has an attached ship’s log with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s signature. It’s not a traditional autograph, but it is unique. Readers have to unfurl the ship’s log to see the autograph, essentially putting themselves in Hawthorne’s space looking over the log to sign it. A signed ship’s log with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s signature must be a very rare item, and it is unique that the volume's original owner kept it in one of his own books.