poor author had the money,
he would buy a beefsteak for dinner; when he had not, he would make a
meal of chestnuts and potatoes. He had the self-control and the probity
to fulfill that essential condition of self-respect, alike for those who
subsist by brain work and those who inherit fortunes--he always lived
within his income; and it was only by a kind of pious fraud that a trio
of his oldest friends occasionally managed to pay his rent." His friend
and publisher, Mr. Ticknor, "received and invested the surplus earnings
of the absentee author when American Consul at Liverpool, and had
obtained from Hawthorne a promise on the eve of his departure for his
post, ... that he would send him all he could spare from his official
income, to be carefully nursed into a competence for his family. Never
was better advice given or wiser service performed by publisher to
author. The investments thus made became the means of comfort to the
returned writer in the maturity of his years and his fame."

In 1852 he returned to Concord and purchased a small house which had
once been the residence of the philosopher Alcott. Here he made his
permanent home and gathered about him his household treasures. In the
Presidential campaign of 1852, his friend Franklin Pierce was the
candidate of the Democracy, and Hawthorne wrote a short biography of him
which was used by the Democrats as a campaign document. It was a labor
of love, for the friendship that had been begun between these two men in
their college days had never been broken, and though naturally averse to
every thing that savored of politics, our author made this contribution
to the cause of his friend with all the heartiness of his nature. Pierce
was profoundly touched by this unexpected aid, for he knew how utterly
Hawthorne detested political strife, and when seated in the Presidential
chair he showed his appreciation of it by offering his friend the
consulship to Liverpool--one of the most lucrative offices within the
gift of the executive. Hawthorne broke up his home in Concord and sailed
for Liverpool in 1853, and remained there until 1857, when he resigned
his consulship and traveled on the continent with his family, residing
for some time in Italy for the benefit of his health. His European
residence had the effect of drawing him out of his shyness and reserve
to a certain extent, and during the closing years of his life he was
more social with the persons about him than he had