was reflecting, studying Salem and its neighborhood, and serving a severe literary apprenticeship. He lived during the day in the seclusion of his room, dreaming, reading, writing; at night he issued forth for lonely walks by the sea or in the woodland paths or through the narrow little streets of witch-haunted Salem. He made few friends; indeed, he knew few people, and doubtless those he did know regarded him as an eccentric and silent being, who lived in another world apart.

A number of sketches and short stories by Hawthorne were published in the early 'thirties in several New England magazines, among which was The Token, a popular "annual" of the day edited by S. G. Goodrich, who as "Peter Parley" wrote many books for young people. For this and other periodicals Hawthorne had become a more or less regular contributor; he had, however, so far published nothing over his own signature. In 1837 his friend Bridge, without the author's knowledge, induced a publisher to bring out a collection of Hawthorne's stories under the title, Twice-Told Tales. This enjoyed a fairly good sale and greatly increased his reputation. Meanwhile the Peabodys, a prominent Salem family, had begun to take an interest in the obscure author; Miss Sophia Peabody, a young lady of artistic tastes, had drawn illus-trations for his story, "The Gentle Boy." The outcome of this association was an engagement between Hawthorne and Miss Peabody. Before he could support a wife, however, it was necessary for Hawthorne to find a more profitable occupation than authorship. Through the efforts of friends he was appointed in 1839 to a position in the Boston custom-house, where he remained two years, weighing cargoes and keeping tally as the vessels were unloaded. These practical duties he seems to have performed with success, if without enthusiasm. With the change of administration at Washington he lost his place. His savings, amounting to about one thousand dollars, he invested in the Brook Farm enterprise, with a view to making a home there for Miss Peabody, whom he hoped to marry the next year. Hawthorne was not an ardent transcendentalist, but the idealistic aims of the Brook Farm enthusiasts appealed to him, and he went to work with a right good will. A year's residence in this community was enough: manual labor, of which he conscientiously did his daily share, could not long attract one who was destined for another vocation. His Note-Books give in detail his impressions of the activities of Brook Farm. He had lost all his money, but he had gained valuable experience; and without further delay, he married and went to Concord to live in the Old Manse. From 1842 to 1846 Hawthorne and his wife lived happily in the old house near the famous bridge where the Concord farmers "fired the shot heard round the world." In the congenial atmosphere of this

intellectual center he met such men as Emerson, Thoreau, and Channing, and he roamed the woods and explored the streams in almost idyllic content. Out of this leisure grew Mosses from an Old Manse and other tales, but the monetary returns were slight. In 1846 the Democratic administration, through the influence of his friend Pierce, gave him the office of surveyor of customs at Salem. The three years from 1846 to 1849 he spent in his native town in this position, he duties of which he faithfully performed, in spite of the opposition of local politicians, who were displeased at the appointment of a non-resident.

Hawthorne did not mingle freely with his fellow-townsmen, and that also made against his popularity. The political whirligig brought its revenges, and in 1849 he was displaced. When in some depression of spirit he told his wife of his change of fortune, she cheerfully replied: "Oh, then you can write your book." This proved to be The Scarlet Letter, which appeared the next year. The following two years were

spent at Lenox, Massachusetts, and at West Newton, near Boston, in the composition of The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Ro

mance.

In 1852 Hawthorne returned to Concord, where he had purchased the little house on the road beyond Emerson's, since known as The Wayside, once the home of Bronson Alcott, a leading transcendentalist. The house is now visited by literary pilgrims, and the little bower back of it on the hillside among the pine trees is still pointed out as Hawthorne's out-of-door study. This was his American home for the rest of his life. His college mate, Franklin Pierce, came to the presidency in 1853, and the same year the author was made consul to Liverpool. This gave him an opportunity for travel and study, though he did not neglect the duties of his office; he seems, however, to have cared little for foreign social life, and, quite unlike Irving, he met few literary men. After four years' service, he resigned the Liverpool consulship and spent the next three years traveling on the continent; much of this time was passed in Rome, where he gathered material for The Marble Faun finishing it in England in 1859.

Hawthorne returned to America in 1860, having lived abroad seven years. He had abundance of material for many romances, as his voluminous Note-Books show, and he purposed to settle down at Concord for years of authorship. These plans were not to be realized. The war between the North and the South was on; Hawthorne, a man of peace and in love with the quiet life, was depressed at the disturbed condition of the country; the effect was bad on so sensitive a soul. After traveling about in search of health, he died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, in May, 1864, in the company of his faithful friend, ex-President Pierce, with whom he was making a journey to the White Mountains. His grave is in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord.

His Personality.-Physically Hawthorne was an uncommonly handsome man; this picture of him in his earlier manhood by his son Julian, though perhaps slightly idealized, is in the main doubtless correct: "He was five feet, ten and a half inches in height, broad-shouldered, but of a light, athletic build, not weighing more than one hundred and fifty pounds. His limbs were beautifully formed, and the moulding of his neck and throat was as fine as anything in antique sculpture. His hair, which had a long, curving wave in it, approached blackness in color; his head was large and grandly developed; his eyebrows were dark and heavy, with a superb arch and space beneath. His nose was straight but the contour of his chin was Roman. His eyes were large, dark blue, brilliant, and full

of varied expression. Bayard Taylor used to say that they were the only eyes he had ever known flash fire. His complexion was delicate and transparent, rather dark than light, with a ruddy tinge in the cheeks.

Up to the time he was forty years old, he could clear a height of five feet at a standing jump. His voice, which was low and deep in ordinary conversation, had astounding volume when he chose to give full vent to it."

Hawthorne had a somewhat shy and retiring nature, given much to dreaming and meditation. All his life he was more or less solitary, though with congenial companions he was sociable enough; at college, as we have seen, he made friends and was a leader in good fellowship; his family life was beautiful. From the great movements of his time he lived apart, busied with problems of conscience rooted in romance. He was brooding and introspective. New people he did not care to meet, nor was he anything of a partisan. Though he lived in one of the most critical periods of American history, he apparently had little personal interest in the mighty struggle which was convulsing the nation. His enthusiasms were intellectual rather than social; if there be some ground for charging him with selfishness, it is lost sight of in the remembrance of his steadfast devotion to his friends, his conscientious performance of unpleasant bread-winning tasks, and his singular consecration to his art.

His Works. The writings of Hawthorne may be divided into two general groups-(1) the Tales and Sketches, and (2) the Long Romances. The first group includes Twice-Told Tales (1837), Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales (1851), A Wonder-Book (1851), Tanglewood Tales (1853). The last two collections are children's stories, to which should be added the earlier Grandfather's Chair (1841), a volume of simple narratives from New England history. The second group consists of the four long romances,