"For now, being happy," he
says, "I felt as if there were no question to be put."
Hawthorne was married in July, 1842, and went at once to this his first
home. Just before going to Brook Farm he had written "Grandfather's
Chair," the first part of a series of sketches of New England history
for children, which was published by Miss Peabody in Boston, and Wiley
and Putnam in New York; but the continuation was interrupted by his stay
at the farm. In 1842 he wrote a second portion, and also some
biographical stories, all of which gained an immediate success. He also
resumed his contributions to the "Democratic Review," the most brilliant
periodical of the time, in which Whittier, Longfellow, Lowell, Poe, and
other noted authors made their appearance. It was published at
Washington, and afterward at New York, and made considerable pretensions
to a national character. Hawthorne had been engaged as a contributor, at
a fair rate, in 1838, and his articles had his name appended (not always
Hie practice at that time) in a way that shows the high estimation into
which he had already grown. "John Inglefield's Thanksgiving," "The
Celestial Railroad," "The Procession of Life," "Fire Worship," "Buds and
Bird Voices," and "Roger Malvin's Burial," all appeared in the
"Democratic" in 1843. "Rappaccini's Daughter" and other tales followed
in the next year; and in 1845 the second volume of "Twice-Told Tales"
was brought out at Boston. During the same year Hawthorne edited the
"African Journals" of his friend Bridge, then an officer in the navy,
who had just completed a cruise.
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