I have many postcards from the early 20th century that celebrate literary heroes.

Longfellow, Whittier, Emerson, Louisa Mae Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe – each were pictured with birthplaces or homes.

Today, our best-selling authors are featured in magazines and are lionized in fan pages on the web, so It seems that one can still be celebrated for literary achievement.

I like the idea of mailing postcard memorials.

This hand-tinted postcard photograph was made about 1920.

The “Old Manse”, built for the grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson (who was the Congregational minister in Concord), became the home of the newly-wed Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia Peabody.

The building still stands along the Concord River; it is maintained by an historical trust.

Several of Hawthorne’s early short stories were written there and published as a collection, “Mosses from the Old Manse”.

I have always loved Hawthorne and hope to see his home in Concord, Mass. some day.

The postcard was not mailed.