Nonfiction · 1841
The Whole History of Grandfather’s Chair
Or, True Stories from New England History, 1620-1808
Grandfather sits in an old carved oaken chair and tells four children its history, which turns out to be the history of New England from 1620 to 1808. The chair comes over with the Lady Arbella, passes through the hands of governors, ministers and merchants, and is present — by Hawthorne's arrangement — at the Puritan settlement, the Quaker persecutions, the coining of the pine-tree shillings, the Salem witch trials, Cotton Mather's study, the Boston Massacre, the Tea Party and the Revolution. The children interrupt constantly, and Grandfather has to keep deciding how much of the truth a child ought to be told.
Nathaniel Hawthorne published the three parts — Grandfather's Chair, Famous Old People and Liberty Tree — in 1840 and 1841, before his novels, when he was writing for children to make a living. The material is the same New England past that produced The Scarlet Letter.
This Bibliomancer edition presents all three parts complete, with the author's preface and the appendix on John Eliot.
Contents
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- Author’s Preface
- Part I — 1620–1692
- Chapter I — Grandfather and the Children and the Chair
- Chapter II — The Puritans and the Lady Arbella
- Chapter III — A Rainy Day
- Chapter IV — Troublous Times
- Chapter V — The Government of New England
- Chapter VI — The Pine-Tree Shillings
- Chapter VII — The Quakers and the Indians
- Chapter VIII — The Indian Bible
- Chapter IX — England and New England
- Chapter X — The Sunken Treasure
- Chapter XI — What the Chair Had Known
- Appendix to Part I
- Part II — 1692–1763
- Chapter I — The Chair in the Firelight
- Chapter II — The Salem Witches
- Chapter III — The Old-Fashioned School
- Chapter IV — Cotton Mather
- Chapter V — The Rejected Blessing
- Chapter VI — Pomps and Vanities
- Chapter VII — The Provincial Muster
- Chapter VIII — The Old French War and the Acadian Exiles
- Chapter IX — The End of the War
- Chapter X — Thomas Hutchinson
- Appendix to Part II — Account of the Deportation of the Acadians
- Part III — 1763–1803
- Chapter I — A New-Year’s Day
- Chapter II — The Stamp Act
- Chapter III — The Hutchinson Mob
- Chapter IV — The British Troops in Boston
- Chapter V — The Boston Massacre
- Chapter VI — A Collection of Portraits
- Chapter VII — The Tea Party and Lexington
- Chapter VIII — The Siege of Boston
- Chapter IX — The Tory’s Farewell
- Chapter X — The War for Independence
- Chapter XI — Grandfather’s Dream
- Appendix to Part III
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
1804–1864 · Victorian
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts, a descendant of a judge at the Salem witch trials. After Bowdoin College he wrote tales for a dozen years in near-seclusion (Twice-Told Tales, 1837), worked in the Boston and Salem custom houses, and lived briefly at Brook Farm. The Scarlet Letter (1850) made his name; The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852) and The Marble Faun (1860) followed. He served as American consul at Liverpool from 1853 to 1857.
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