Hawthorne published his first novel, Fanshawe, anonymously in 1828. The novel was based on his college life, but it did not receive much attention and Hawthorne burned the unsold copies. Thanks to his apparent failure, however, Hawthorne sparked a friendship with the publisher Samuel Goodrich. In 1830 he published his earliest stories, "Provincial Tales" and "Seven Tales of My Native Land," in Goodrich's annual The Salem Gazette and The New England Magazine. By this time Hawthorne had added a "w" to his name in order to differentiate himself from his ancestor who took part in the Salem With Trails. In 1837 Hawthorne compiled Peter Parsley Universal History for Children which he later followed with other books for children such as Grandfather Chair and Liberty Tree. His works finally began to be noticed and the second expanded edition of Twice Told Tales, published in 1942, was praised by Edgar Allan Poe in Graham's Magazine.
In 1842 Hawthorne became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, Transcendentalists in Concord. Furthermore, on July 9th, 1842, Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody, an active participant of the Transcendentalist Movement. They settled in Concord, in "The Old Manse," one of Emerson's family homes. However, Hawthorne had to admit that "the treasure of intellectual gold" did not feed his family. As a result, he was forced to return to Salem and take a job as a port surveyor at the Salem Custom House. He worked there for three years until he was fired. "I detest this town so much," Hawthorne said, "that I hate to go out into the streets, or to have people see me." In fact, the chapter "The Custom House" at the beginning of The Scarlet Letter is based partly on his experiences while working in Salem. The novel was published in 1850 and tells the story of Hester Prynne and how she falls victim to Puritan obsession and intolerance. After publishing the novel Hawthorne moves to Lenox, Massachusetts, where he meets Herman Melville, who later dedicates his novel Moby Dick to the "genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne". Hawthorne's other famous novel, The House of the Seven Gables, was published the following year, in 1851. The story is based on the legend of a curse pronounced on Hawthorne's family which is mirrored in the decay of the Pyncheons' seven-gabled mansion.
In 1853, Hawthorne's college friend, Franklin Pierce became President of the United States and Hawthorne, who had written a campaign biography for him, was appointed as consul in Liverpool, England. He lived there for four years, and later spent a year and half in Italy writing The Marble Faun, a story about the conflict between innocence and guilt, which was his last completed novel. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, in Plymouth, New Hampshire on a trip to the mountains with his friend Franklin Pierce. After his death his wife edited and published his notebooks. Modern editions of these works include many of the sections which she presumably cut out or altered.