Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/193

Rh had no success, being short tales and sketches, which, after appearing in periodicals, were coll. and pub. as Twice-told Tales (1837), followed by a second series in 1842. In 1841 he joined for a few months the socialistic community at Brook Farm, but soon tired of it, and in the next year he m. and set up house in Concord in an old manse, formerly tenanted by, whence proceeded Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). It was followed by The Snow Image (1851), The Scarlet Letter (1850), his most powerful work, The House of Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance (1852), besides his children's books, The Wonder Book, and The Tanglewood Tales. Such business as he had occupied himself with had been in connection with Custom-House appointments at different places; but in 1853 he received from his friend Franklin Pierce, on his election to the Presidency, the appointment of United States Consul at Liverpool, which he retained for four years, when, in consequence of a threatened failure of health, he went to Italy and began his story of The Marble Faun, pub. in England in 1860 under the title of The Transformation. The last of his books pub. during his lifetime was Our Old Home (1863), notes on England and the English. He had returned to America in 1860, where, with failing health and powers, he passed his remaining four years. After his death there were pub. The Ancestral Footstep, Septimus Felton, Dr. Grimshawe's Secret, and The Dolliver Romance, all more or less fragmentary. Most of H.'s work is pervaded by a strong element of mysticism, and a tendency to dwell in the border-land between the seen and the unseen. His style is characterised by a distinctive grace and charm, rich, varied, suggestive, and imaginative. On the whole he is undoubtedly the greatest imaginative writer yet produced by America.

There are several ed. of the Works, e.g. Little Classics, 25 vols.; Riverside, 15 vols.; Standard Library, 15 vols.; the two last have biographies. Lives by his son Julian, H. James (English Men of Letters, 1850), M. D. Conway (Great Writers, 1890), etc.

 Author:John Hay (1838-1906).—Diplomatist and poet, b. at Salem, Indiana, ed. at Brown Univ., and called to the Illinois Bar, served in the army, and was one of President Lincoln's secs. He then held diplomatic posts at Paris, Madrid, and Vienna, was Ambassador to Great Britain, and was in 1898 appointed Sec. of State. He has a place in literature by virtue of his Pike County Ballads, and Castilian Days (1871).

 Author:William Hayley (1745-1820).—Poet and biographer, was b. at Chichester, and ed. at Eton and Camb. Though overstrained and romantic, he had some literary ability, and was a good conversationalist. He was the friend of, whose Life he wrote; and it was to his influence with Pitt that the granting of a pension to the poet was due. He was the author of numerous poems, including The Triumph of Temper, and of Essays on History and Epic Poetry, and, in addition to his biography of Cowper, wrote a Life of Milton. On the death of in 1790 he was offered, but declined, the Laureateship. Of him said, "Everything about that man is good except his poetry."

 Author:Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886).—Poet, b. at Charleston, S. Carolina, of an old family, contributed to various