Editing Nathaniel Hawthorne (section)

===Early career===
[[File:CustomHouseStreet Boston.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Boston Custom House]], Custom House Street, where Hawthorne worked c. 1839–40<ref>George Edwin Jepson. "Hawthorne in the Boston Custom House". [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZGgeAQAAIAAJ ''The Bookman'']. August 1904.</ref>]]

Hawthorne's first published work, [[Fanshawe (novel)|''Fanshawe: A Tale'']], based on his experiences at Bowdoin College, appeared anonymously in October 1828, printed at the author's own expense of $100.{{sfn|Mellow|1980|pp= 41–42}} Although it received generally positive reviews, it did not sell well. He published several minor pieces in the ''[[Salem Gazette]]''.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Life%26Times/Family/Introduction.html| title = "Hawthorne in Salem", North Shore Community College| access-date = July 4, 2021| archive-date = May 10, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210510081244/http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Life%26Times/Family/Introduction.html| url-status = dead}}</ref>

In 1836, Hawthorne served as the editor of the ''[[American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge]]''. At the time, he boarded with poet [[Thomas Green Fessenden]] on Hancock Street in Beacon Hill in [[Boston]].<ref>Wineapple, 87–88</ref> He was offered an appointment as weigher and gauger at the [[Boston Custom House]] at a salary of $1,500 a year, which he accepted on January 17, 1839.<ref>Miller, 169</ref> During his time there, he rented a room from [[George Stillman Hillard]], business partner of [[Charles Sumner]].<ref>Mellow, 169</ref> Hawthorne wrote in the comparative obscurity of what he called his "owl's nest" in the family home. As he looked back on this period of his life, he wrote: "I have not lived, but only dreamed about living."<ref>Letter to Longfellow, June 4, 1837.</ref> He contributed short stories to various magazines and annuals, including "[[Young Goodman Brown]]" and "[[The Minister's Black Veil]]", though none drew major attention to him. [[Horatio Bridge]] offered to cover the risk of collecting these stories in the spring of 1837 into the volume ''[[Twice-Told Tales]]'', which made Hawthorne known locally.<ref>McFarland, 22–23</ref>