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The Great Stone Face

Nathaniel Hawthorne

First published 1851
Type Short Fiction
Length Novelette

As a child, Ernest lives within sight of the stone face on Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire, and hears the local prophecy that someday a very great man will appear, looking exactly like the stone face. Ernest lives a long life of mildness and wisdom while various ambitious people are passingly acclaimed as the promised man. In Ernest's old age, people finally realize that this retiring man looks like the stone face.

First published in the National Era, January 24, 1850.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1851 The Snow-Image, and Other Tales Henry G. Bohn Collection 16
January 1852 Cover The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales Ticknor, Reed, and Fields Collection 36
1897 Little Masterpieces Doubleday & McClure Collection 141
1898 Little Masterpieces Doubleday & McClure Collection 141
1905 Short Story Classics (American) P. F. Collier & Son Anthology 83
August 1907 Famous Stories Every Child Should Know Doubleday, Page & Company Anthology 148|6
1913 Famous Stories Every Child Should Know Doubleday, Page & Company Anthology 148
1922 Hawthorne Doubleday, Page & Company Collection |5
1929 American Folk and Fairy Tales Charles Scribner's Sons Collection 159
1935 Cover The Great Stone Face and Other Tales of the White Mountains Riverside Press / Houghton Mifflin Collection 1
1937 Cover The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne Modern Library Omnibus 1170
1937 Cover Famous Stories Every Child Should Know Doubleday, Doran Anthology 148
1939 Cover The Bedside Book of Famous American Stories Random House Anthology 44
1946 Cover The Blue Flower: Best Stories of the Romanticists Roy Publishers Anthology 630
1962 Cover Hawthorne's Short Stories Dodd, Mead & Co. Collection |26
1974 The Snow-Image and Uncollected Tales Ohio State University Press Collection |13
1982 Cover Tales and Sketches The Library of America Omnibus 1068
1984 Cover Himera: Proză fantastică americană, Vol. 1 Editura Minerva Anthology 157
July 2005 Famous Stories Every Child Should Know Project Gutenberg Anthology |148
2007 Tales and Sketches The Library of America Omnibus |1068
December 2011 Cover The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Volume 1 Leonaur Ltd Collection
December 2011 Cover The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Volume 1 Leonaur Ltd Collection