Introduction: The Custom-House

1 (p. 5) Old Manse: Hawthorne previously displayed an “autobiographical impulse” in the essay “The Old Manse,” subtitled “The Author Makes the Reader Acquainted with his Abode,” which appears in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). The sketch is similar in style and tone to “The Custom-House.”

2 (p. 5) Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of this Parish: The reference is one of many tongue-in-cheek reflections on the author’s literary output and style in “The Custom-House.” “Memoirs” parodied the long-winded, pompous autobiography History of my Own Times (1723) by Bishop Gilbert Burnet. The parody appeared in Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, a collection of satirical pieces written, without individual attribution, by John Arbuthnot, John Gay, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift as The Scriblerus Club.

3 (p. 6) tales that make up my volume: Hawthorne originally intended to publish “The Custom-House” and The Scarlet Letter in a collection with several additional short works.

4 (p. 6) old King Derby: The reference is to Elias Hasket Derby (1739-1799), who initiated trade with the Orient from the port of Salem.

5 (p. 9) Loco-foco Surveyor: “Loco-foco” initially referred to the radical wing of the Democratic party. Whigs appropriated the term from conservative Democrats and applied it pejoratively toward Democrats in general and, at the time of his removal from the customhouse, toward Hawthorne in particular.

6 (p. 9) emigrant of my name: This was William Hathome, who traveled to Massachusetts from England in 1630 and settled in Salem shortly after, where he was revered as a magistrate and society elder. Hathorne sentenced those who transgressed Salem’s mores to such punishments as having one’s tongue bored with a hot iron or one’s ear lopped off at the same time Hathome operated a still for “strong waters.” Nathaniel Hawthorne changed the spelling of his familial name.

7 (p. 10) a woman of their sect: The woman in question was Anne Coleman, who was dragged half naked behind a cart, flogged, and driven into the forest.

8 (p. 10) left a stain upon him: William Hathorne’s son John, another judge and patriarch of Puritan society, participated in the preliminary phases of the witch trials of 1692.

9 (p. 12) as chief executive officer of the Custom-House: Hawthorne was appointed Surveyor of the Salem Custom House in 1846, during the administration of President James K. Polk. Although Hawthorne’s term was to have lasted four years, he was removed after only three, following widespread Whig victories in the elections of 1848.

10 (p. 13) General Miller: General James F. Miller, a hero of the War of 1812, would have been seventy years old when Hawthorne became surveyor.

11 (p. 16) a certain permanent Inspector: William Lee had been inspector since 1814 and was in his late seventies when Hawthorne took office.

12 (p. 21) “I’ll try, Sir!”: Miller reportedly responded with these words to a battle order that he gain control of a British battery near Niagara Falls.

13 (p. 22) new idea of talent: Hawthorne is referring to his friend Zachariah Burchmore, who also lost his office when the Whig administration took over.

14 (p. 23) Brook Farm: This was a cooperative agrarian community founded by a Unitarian minister, George Ripley, in 1841 as a utopian alternative to an increasingly industrialized and materialistic society. Hawthorne invested in and joined the community in its first year of existence but left after seven months, finding that the hard physical labor demanded by communal living sapped his literary powers. He later sued to have his investment returned.

15 (p. 23) Emerson’s: Ralph Waldo Emerson, at whose family homestead Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne lived for three years, articulated the Transcendentalist beliefs embraced by Brook Farm’s founders.

16 (p. 23) Ellery Channing: William Ellery Channing was a young poet of modest output whose brief stay at Brook Farm overlapped with Hawthorne’s.

17 (p. 23) Thoreau and Walden: The reference is to the writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, who described, in Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), his experience of living in a self-built cabin on the shore of Walden Pond, outside Concord, Massachusetts.

18 (p. 23) Hillard’s culture: George Stillman Hillard, a Boston lawyer who also pursued literary interests and offered political and financial assistance to Hawthorne, was a life-long friend of the latter.

19 (p. 23) Longfellow’s hearth-stone: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a class-mate of Hawthorne’s at Bowdoin College in Maine and had already achieved recognition in 1837, when he wrote an extremely favorable review of Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales (1837).

20 (p. 23) Alcott: Amos Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May Alcott, was a philosopher and teacher who pursued his idealist vision by founding the utopian community Fruitlands.

21 (p. 23) Surveyor of the Revenue: As surveyor, Hawthorne was responsible for determining the customs duty on imported goods.

22 (p. 24) of Bums or of Chaucer: The Scottish poet Robert Burns served briefly as an excise officer, and Geoffrey Chaucer served for twelve years as a customs officer in London.

23 (p. 25) old Billy Gray,-old Simon Forrester: William Gray and Simon Forrester were wealthy Salem sea merchants in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

24 (p. 26) Governor Shirley and Jonathan Pue: William Shirley was the colonial governor of Massachusetts from 1741 to 1749 and from 1753 to 1756. Jonathan Pue, whose death was recorded as occurring in 1760, was Hawthorne’s early predecessor in the post of the Salem customhouse surveyor.

25 (p. 27) included in the present volume: Hawthorne decided not to publish “Main Street” with The Scarlet Letter, but included the story in The Snow Image (1852).

26 (p. 27) Essex Historical Society: Despite Hawthorne’s suggestion, the Pue documents are apparently fictitious.

27 (p. 30) claimed as his share of my daily life: As surveyor, Hawthorne worked three and a half hours a day and was paid $1,200 a year.

28 (p. 35) election of General Taylor to the Presidency: Following the election of Zachariah Taylor, a Whig, Hawthorne enlisted friends in journalism and politics to counter the inevitable campaign to deprive him of his office. Hawthorne’s political opponents accused him of partisanship and incompetence in fulfilling his duties. Hawthorne’s reliance on powerful outsiders only further alienated him from Whigs as well as Democrats, who resented Hawthorne’s reticent engagement in the ceremonial functions of office. Despite his ambivalence about serving as “Surveyor of the Revenue,” Hawthorne remained bitter long after his removal from the post.

29 (p. 39) THE TOWN PUMP!: Hawthorne published “A Rill from the Town-Pump,” describing life in Salem in Twice-Told Tales (1837).