Hawthorne in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life,Drawn from Recollections,Interviews, and Memoirs by Family,Frie

[ Childhood Encounters with Hawthorne in Salem] ( 1887)

[Childhood Encounters with Hawthorne in Salem] (1887) [Lucy Ann Sutton Bradley] The reminiscence that follows, which describes Hawthorne’s early years in the Salemhomeofhismaternalgrandmother,MiriamLordManning,firstappeared in the New York Observer on 4 August 1887, where it was signed “Vieja”—“Old Woman.” The authenticity of the reminiscence and the identity of Lucy Ann Sutton Bradley as its author were established by Manning Hawthorne in a study that appeared in the Essex Institute Historical Collections in 1947. According to Manning Hawthorne’s reconstruction of events related in the piece, Bradley, who was Grandmother Manning’s great-grand niece and roughly the same age as the Hawthorne children, first visited the Manning home with her mother in 1812–1813. The text of Bradley’s reminiscence is taken from Manning Hawthorne ’s study, but biographical facts about Bradley provided by Hawthorne are supplemented here by information reported in the genealogical files of the Thomas Osgood Bradley Foundation (www.bradleyfoundation.org). Lucy Ann Sutton Bradley was born in Portland, Maine, in 1804 and died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1888, the year after her reminiscence appeared in the Observer. In 1827, she married Thomas Osgood Bradley, a dry goods merchant, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and in 1829, they left America for Argentina, where Thomas established a wool brokerage in Buenos Aires. Bradley describes herself as “nearly ten years of age” when she first met Nathaniel, which suggests that the visit occurred late in 1813 or early in 1814; since her narrative abruptly ends with the statement, “Nathaniel entered college [in 1821] and I left the States [in 1829],” it is unclear on the point of how many additional times they may have met. Even though more than seventy years had passed since her first meeting with Nathaniel, Bradley appears to have a clear recollection of all the persons she encountered and a good memory for incidents that brought her into contact with Nathaniel. Her account describes his day-to-day life as a young boy and his generally otherwise unrecorded playful nature. Although she notes with pleasure that they enjoyed reading many of the same authors, she cannot resist reporting his boyish taunts about whether she had seen any witches near [13] [13] XZ hawthorne in his own time [14] Salem’s Gallows Hill or how she managed to read fine literature in Portland, where the conservative Congregational minister Edward Payson presided. Manning Hawthorne makes much of Bradley’s remark that the widow Hathorne was not quite the odd, reclusive figure following her husband’s death that contemporary and later accounts often depict, and he claims that Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was the one who promoted this version of her character (see 178, 182n5). However, as the evidence gathered throughout this volume suggests, contemporary descriptions of Betsy Hathorne’s character are remarkably consistent, so that in this instance, at least, Bradley is either painting a more rosy picture of Hathorne’s character than others saw or just happened to visit during her good days. Living in the house at the time of Bradley’s first visit to the Mannings were the elder Mrs. Manning, Betsy and her three children , and Betsy’s siblings: Mary, Priscilla, Robert, Samuel, and William Manning . John Dike, who is also mentioned in Bradley’s reminiscence, did not live in the house, though he later married Priscilla Manning. The reminiscences of my early life recall distinctly my first acquaintance with Nathaniel Hawthorne. When I was nearly ten years of age, my mother took me on a visit to her Aunt Manning in Salem.This aunt was grandmother to Nathaniel. His mother, Mrs. Hawthorne, was formerly Betsey Manning; she was now a widow with her three children living with Mrs. Manning. The two unmarried daughters, Mary and Priscilla, with the brothers Robert and Samuel, composed the family living in Herbert Street. On the day of our arrival, and while my mother was resting, Aunt Mary took me by the hand and led me to the sitting room, where Nathaniel was standing by the side of his mother and reading aloud.Mrs.Hawthorne kindly noticed me,and then Aunt Mary said to Nathaniel: “This is your cousin,and I want you to be very polite to her.” He extended his hand with the book in it toward the table and said: “She can play with my dominoes”—the blocks for the game were scattered about the table. His mother said something in a low voice about “brushing up.” In leaving the room with...