Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny by Papa

This charming extract from Nathaniel Hawthorne's American Notebooks is, as described by Paul Auster in his introduction,""something that no writer had ever attempted before Hawthorne: a meticulous, blow-by-blow account of a man taking care of a young child by himself."" When his wife and daughters went away on a three-week visit, Hawthorne stayed home with five-year-old Julian. The writer's musings on this adventure are, in Auster's words,""at once comic, self-deprecatory, and vaguely befuddled,"" as he discovers how insistent a child's needs are, and how boundless his energy. They take walks to the lake and play with their pet rabbit; Hawthorne tends to a wasp sting, tries to tame unruly hair and discovers the pleasure of finally putting the""old gentleman"" to bed after a long day during which it was""impossible to write, read, think, or even to sleep...so constant are his appeals to me."" Unusual evidence, if any were needed, that a writer does indeed need a room of his (or her) own. B&w illus.