Journal Entry 1 by SheWhoReads from Athens, Georgia USA on Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Pre-numbered label used for registration.

Book Description:

Hailed by Henry James as "the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country," Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth.

With The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic, a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride.
 

Journal Entry 2 by SheWhoReads from Athens, Georgia USA on Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The novel was a success when it was first published, selling out a first printing within a few days. Although critics and literary figures praised the novel, religious journals and clergymen denonced it as “a dirty story” that belonged only in “a Brothel Library.” A review in Brownson’s Quarterly declared that neither Dimmesdale nor Hester exhibited “remorse” or “really repents of the criminal deed” and that “it is a story that should not have been told.” In Church Review, Rev. Arthur C. Coxe also condemned the two main characters as not being sufficiently repentant and stated that “the nauseous amour” was not appropriate subject matter for fiction. In 1852 Coxe called for the banning of The Scarlet Letter as he launched a savage attack, proclaiming that he was against “any toleration to a popular and gifted writer when he perpetrates bad morals – let his brokerage of lust be put down at the very beginning.” He stated that he could not tolerate a novel that dealt with an “illicit relationship.”...The citizens of Salem were so incensed by Hawthorne’s novel that he moved his family out of the city to a farmhouse in the Berkshires.

...In 1961, parents of students in Michigan objected to the assignment of the novel in high school English classes, claiming tht it was “pornographic and obscene.” They demanded that the book be taken out of the curriculum, but the request was denied. ...In 1977, a parent in Michigan objected to the inclusion of the novel in the high school English curriculum because it dealt with a clergyman’s “involvement in fornication.” The book was removed from classroom use and from the recommended reading list. That same year, a parent in Missouri condemned the book for its use of “4-letter words” and “other undesirable content” and demanded its removal from the high school library. The school librarian recognized that the parent had not read the book because no obscenities appeared in the novel, and she convinced the parent of his error. The book was retained.

In a 1982 survey of English department chairpersons in Ohio, James Davis reported one challenge to the novel in which a parent claimed that the book was about “adultery,” a “Womanizing preacher” and “prostitution” and requested its removal as an assigned reading in a high school English class. The school board denied the request.

Journal Entry 3 by SheWhoReads at Jittery Joe's Coffee on Alps Road in Athens, Georgia USA on Thursday, September 22, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (9/22/2005 UTC) at Jittery Joe's Coffee on Alps Road in Athens, Georgia USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

I plan to leave this at the new Jittery Joe's in the Alps Rd. shopping center. I'll come back and write more detailed notes after I release the book.

Added at 5:10pm

I left this book in the ladies' room. 

Journal Entry 4 by AnonymousFinder on Friday, October 21, 2005

I caught the book in Jittery Joes - the greatest coffee shop in Athens. I plan to take it to Chicago on my fall break travels this weekend.

CAUGHT IN ATHENS GA 30606 

Journal Entry 5 by AnonymousFinder on Wednesday, April 26, 2006

I caught this book a while ago and almost released it in America, but waited to bring it to Europe. I will be in serveral different cities in the next few weeks, including Milan and Venice, so I will plan to release it soon!!!