Passages from the Letters and the Unfinished Romances

Excerpts from the unfinished novels that Hawthorne attempted to write from 1860 onwards, interspersed with excepts (about writing) from letters. Contents:

• To Horatio Bridge, October 1861 ["I have not found it possible to occupy my mind with its usual trash and nonsense..."]
• from "The American Claimant" ["This grave yard (we are sorry to have to treat of such a disagreeable piece of ground..."]
• To Francis Bennoch, London, October 1862 ["I wish you could come and see us..."]
• from "The Elixir of Life" ["But Septimius's mind, we readily say, was not in a healthy state..."]
• To James T. Fields, October 1863 ["I can't tell you when to expect an instalment of the Romance..."]
• from "The Elixir of Life" ["Various interruptions kept him from further examination of the manuscript..."]
• To James T. Fields, December 1863 ["I have not yet read the proof-sheet..."]
• from "The Elixir of Life" ["It has often seemed to me that winter is the active time..."]
• To Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, January 1864 ["I have been much out of sorts of late..."]
• from "The Elixir of Life" ["Doctor Dolliver, a worthy personage of extreme antiquity..."]
• To James T. Fields, February 1864 ["I hardly know what to say to the Public..."]