again, has brought them back to their flaws, further stating that “… for if the fountain gushed at (his) very doorstep, (he) would not stoop to bathe (his) lips in it.” To obtain more of the enchanted water, the four guests contemplate on travelling to, and head for Florida, to find the Fountain of Youth. Characters Dr. Heidegger - An aged physician, who is the protagonist of the story. Colonel Killigrew - A man who, throughout his life, has had many self-indulgent, sinful pleasures. Mr. Medbourne - A once-rich merchant who lost most of his fortune in speculation. Mr. Gascoigne - A politician whose career was ruined by his corruption. Widow Wycherley - A formerly beautiful woman loved by the three gentlemen (Colonel Killigrew, Mr. Medbourne, Mr. Gascoigne). Sylvia Ward- A youthful woman whose portrait hangs upon a wall in the study. She was supposed to marry Dr. Heidegger but died the day before their marriage. (The rose Dr. Heidegger uses in his experiment is one he received from Sylvia for their wedding.) Publication history and response The story was first published anonymously as "The Fountain of Youth" in the January 1837 issue of Lewis Gaylord Clark's The Knickerbocker magazine in New York. Clarke, who had invited Hawthorne to contribute, noted that he had "rarely read anything which delighted" him more. The story was included later that year in Hawthorne's collection Twice-Told Tales. Park Benjamin Sr. reviewed the collection for the American Monthly Magazine and called it a rival to the work of Washington Irving. He specified that "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" served as "a very apt companion-piece" to Irving's "Mutability of Literature". An anonymous reviewer in the Boston Daily Advertiser, however, noted that the stories in the collection were of "unequal merit" and preferred "the grace and sweetness of such papers as 'Little Annie's Ramble,' or 'A Rill from the Town-pump,' to those of a more ambitious cast, and in which the page glows with a wider and more fearful interest, like 'The Minister's Black Veil' and 'Dr. Heidegger's Experiment.'" Edgar Allan Poe reviewed the second edition of the collection in 1842 and wrote that "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" was "exceedingly well imagined and executed with surpassing ability. The artist breathes in every line of it." Adaptations Dr. Heidegger's Experiment, an episode of the old-time radio program Favorite Story. It first aired on May 15, 1948, and was hosted by Ronald