It was a generous gift that went unappreciated: When, in 1886, a relative of Nathaniel Hawthorne donated the corrected page proofs of The Scarlet Letter to the historical society of Natick, Massachusetts, the manuscript—which included numerous corrections and comments in Hawthorne’s own hand—was placed in a drawer and forgotten. It wasn’t discovered until earlier this year, 118 years later, when, according to this Associated Press wire story, trustee Roger Casavant came across it. Says Chirs Coover, the senior rare books specialist at Christie’s, “This is unique. No other proof pages of any of Hawthorne’s novels or stories survive.” Says scholar Matthew J. Bruccoli, it’s the “only set of proof pages of any of the classic 19th century novels. Apart from what they tell us about Hawthorne, it’s a key document about publishing at that time.”