“A Work of Friendship”: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Franklin Pierce, and the Politics of Enmity in the Civil War Era

Abstract

This article investigates the friendship of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Franklin Pierce over the period 1852–1868. By revealing an intimate, later-life friendship between the two men, it underscores the role of enmity toward others in shaping the friendships of political actors in the Civil War era. It examines the development of this friendship through three different phases of their lives. First, the period of partisan activity in the presidential election of 1852, during which time Hawthorne wrote The Life of Franklin Pierce (1852); second, the period of separation and reunion abroad, including Hawthorne's controversial dedication to Pierce in Our Old Home : A Series of English Sketches (1863); and third, the author's final journey with Pierce, Hawthorne's subsequent death, and Pierce's embrace of members of Hawthorne's family in the ex-president's remaining years. This article argues that the friendship of Hawthorne and Pierce had been transformed by the divisive forces of partisanship, which in turn altered each man's view of his friendships with others.