Fanshawe (novel)

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The novel Fanshawe was the first published work by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and published anonymously in 1828. It was based on his experiences at Bowdoin College in the early 1820s. He had written successful short stories before, but this was his first attempt at creating a novel. Hawthorne published the romance himself, and it was largely unnoticed. After its commercial failure, he burned the unsold copies: "Later all the copies that could be obtained were destroyed. A dozen years after his death a copy was found and the tale reissued by James R. Osgood & co." (quote cf. N.E. Brown, Bibl. of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Boston and New York, 1905)

Fanshawe is also the name of one of the main characters of Paul Auster's 1986 novel The Locked Room which was included in The New York Trilogy.