Editing Nathaniel Hawthorne (section)

===The Wayside and Europe===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?179670-1/hawthorne-life ''Booknotes'' interview with Brenda Wineapple on ''Hawthorne: A Life'', January 4, 2004], [[C-SPAN]]}}
In May 1852, the Hawthornes returned to Concord where they lived until July 1853.<ref name="Reynolds, 10"/> In February, they bought The Hillside, a home previously inhabited by [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] and his family, and renamed it [[The Wayside]].<ref>McFarland, 129–130</ref> Their neighbors in Concord included Emerson and [[Henry David Thoreau]].<ref>McFarland, 182</ref> That year, Hawthorne wrote ''The Life of Franklin Pierce'', the campaign biography of his friend, which depicted him as "a man of peaceful pursuits".<ref name=Miller381>Miller, 381</ref> [[Horace Mann]] said, "If he makes out Pierce to be a great man or a brave man, it will be the greatest work of fiction he ever wrote."<ref name=Miller381/> In the biography, Hawthorne depicts Pierce as a statesman and soldier who had accomplished no great feats because of his need to make "little noise" and so "withdrew into the background".<ref>Schreiner, 170–171</ref> He also left out Pierce's drinking habits, despite rumors of his alcoholism,<ref>Mellow, 412</ref> and emphasized Pierce's belief that slavery could not "be remedied by human contrivances" but would, over time, "vanish like a dream".<ref>Miller, 382–383</ref>

[[File:Nathaniel HAWTHORNE 1804-1864 American Author stayed here in 1856.JPG|thumb|upright|Commemorative plaque in [[Blackheath, London]]]]
With Pierce's election as [[List of Presidents of the United States|President]], Hawthorne was rewarded in 1853 with the position of United States [[consul (representative)|consul]] in [[Consulate of the United States in Liverpool|Liverpool]] shortly after the publication of ''[[Tanglewood Tales]]''.<ref>McFarland, 186</ref> The role was considered the most lucrative foreign service position at the time, described by Hawthorne's wife as "second in dignity to the Embassy in London".<ref>Mellow, 415</ref> During this period he and his family lived in the Rock Park estate in [[Rock Ferry]] in one of the houses directly adjacent to Tranmere Beach on the Wirral shore of the River Mersey.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Urquhart|first=Peter|date=Spring 2011|title=Nathaniel Hawthorne's Home in Rock Park|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/nathhawtrevi.37.1.0133|jstor=10.5325/nathhawtrevi.37.1.0133|journal=Nathaniel Hawthorne Review|volume=37|issue=1|pages=133–142|access-date=2020-11-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Shaw|first=George|date=1906|title=Nathaniel Hawthorne's House in Rock Park (Letter dated 1903-11-14 to the Liverpool Mercury)|url=https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/58-9-Shaw.pdf|journal=Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire|volume=58|pages=109–112|access-date=2020-11-09}}</ref> Thus to attend his place of employment at the United States consulate in Liverpool, Hawthorne would have been a regular passenger on the steamboat operated Rock Ferry to Liverpool ferry service departing from the Rock Ferry Slipway at the end of Bedford Road.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1391991|title=Rock Ferry Slipway |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2007-06-04 |website=Historic England |access-date=2020-11-09}}</ref>  His appointment ended in 1857 at the close of the [[Presidency of Franklin Pierce|Pierce administration]]. The Hawthorne family toured France and Italy until 1860. During his time in Italy, the previously clean-shaven Hawthorne grew a bushy mustache.<ref>McFarland, 210</ref>

The family returned to The Wayside in 1860,<ref>McFarland, 206</ref> and that year saw the publication of ''[[The Marble Faun]]'', his first new book in seven years.<ref>Mellow, 520</ref> Hawthorne admitted that he had aged considerably, referring to himself as "wrinkled with time and trouble".<ref>Schreiner, 207</ref>