HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL. Two items, each Signed "Nath.

INCLUDES DOCUMENT SIGNED AT THE SALEM CUSTOM HOUSE HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL. Two items, each Signed "Nath. Hawthorne / Surveyor": Partly-printed Document * Clipped Signature. The first, in purple ink, customs declaration for the Brig Esther arriving from Cayenne. 7x8½ inches; two punch holes in upper corners, faint scattered soiling, folds. The second, mounted to a leaf removed from an autograph album. ¾x3 inches; faint scattered soiling.Salem, 18 August 1846; Np, nd

The preface of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, is entitled "The Custom-House"; in it, the narrator is introduced as an official employed at the Custom House in Salem.