A Book of Autographs

Nathaniel Hawthorne turns old handwritten letters into living evidence, arguing that a manuscript can make the American past feel immediate, intimate, and alive. Beginning with John Adams's Revolutionary correspondence, he captures the colonies' uncertainty, fierce patriotism, and the fragile sense of unity that existed before "country" fully became nation. As the war breaks out, letters "favored by General Washington" convey the drama of command and the fiery convictions of Adams, while Washington's own restrained, strategic handwriting suggests calm duty, hidden strength, and a greatness that remains partly unknowable. From Franklin's warmth and Samuel Adams's stern Puritan earnestness to Hancock's symbolic fame and Warren's formal patriotism, Hawthorne uses autographs to contrast public myth with private reality. He broadens the portrait with signatures from Laurens, Jefferson, Morris, Jay, Lincoln, Steuben, and Lafayette, then weighs the treachery of Benedict Arnold against Hamilton's elegance, Pickering's severity, and Burr's lingering charisma. The essay closes with later statesmen and literary figures—Jackson, Irving, Webster, and others—affirming that handwriting can disclose character even as history keeps its deepest mysteries. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.