Miscellanies Biographical and Other Sketches and Letters

Hawthorne scattered his early writings among various periodicals. When he began to gather his fugitive pieces into volumes, he exercised much discretion, and passed by many slight productions. Later he went back and recovered pieces which he had either wittingly or unwittingly overlooked. After his death his representatives and editors drew more from this store of neglected material. Some of it, like the Life of Franklin Pierce, was properly regarded by Hawthorne as fulfilling its purpose i...