PBA Galleries

12 issues, containing 80 pages each (except 1 with 96 pages), plus ads. With 10 engraved frontispiece portraits. 8vo. Original printed light blue or pale gray wrappers, housed together in custom cloth chemise and duo-tone cloth slipcase (spine shaped as being 2 volumes). First Edition.

Described in 1876 by Hawthorne's biographer George Parsons Lathrop as "the most brilliant periodical of the time," which ran from 1837 to October 1859. It was intended to further the interests of the Democratic Party and to contest the "literary toryism" of the other prominent contemporary periodicals. Appearing in the issues of January through June, August, and September is "Papers of an Old Dartmoor Prisoner. Edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne." (Part of the title was erroneously rendered as 'Dartmouth' in the first number). This work was reprinted in extended form in 1926 as The Yarn of a Yankee Privateer and attributed to Benjamin Frederick Browne, a Salem apothecary. Although Hawthorne was a frequent contributor to the magazine, it seems that his editorial work in this instance was very little, and he likely allowed his name to be used for promotional purposes. Also, Edgar Allan Poe's critical "Marginalia" appeared in the issues of April and July, 1846. Others include: James Greenleaf Whittier, Frank Forester, Bayard Taylor, and John Ross Browne. [Chielens, American Literary Magazines, pp. 425-432; see BAL 7649 & Clark A36.1].