Sometime between his graduation and , he changed the spelling of his name from Hathorne to Hawthorne. Hawthorne spent the next years living in Salem and launching his career as a writer.
Hawthorne did go on walks in Salem , and he and his sisters would visit friends at their houses. It was not usual, however, for Hawthorne to call on families whom he knew only casually. On November 11, , however, at the invitation of Elizabeth Peabody, daughter of Dr. It was on this occasion that Hawthorne first met Sophia Peabody , sister of Elizabeth and Mary, and the woman to whom he would become engaged the following year. Helped by Elizabeth Peabody, in January of , Hawthorne obtained a position as measurer of salt and coal in the Boston Custom House.
In late October he moved into rooms at 54 Pinckney St. Hawthorne left his position at the Boston Custom House in the spring of , and in the spring of he moved to Brook Farm, a utopian community in West Roxbury, Masschusetts. Soon disillusioned, however, Hawthorne left Brook Farm, and on July 9, , he married Sophia Peabody at the house of her parents in Boston. Here the Hawthornes had their first child, a daughter, Una, in , and they all lived happily, if under some financial strain, in Concord until when, strapped for money, Hawthorne took a position as Surveyor of the Port at the Salem Custom House.
A son, Julian, was born in the summer of , and in Hawthorne moved his family, including his mother and sisters, to 18 Chestnut Street in Salem; two months later they moved to larger quarters at 14 Mall Street.
Hawthorne had a study on the third floor; his mother and sisters lived on the second floor, and the children resided on the first floor. The following year was a particularly trying one for Hawthorne. On June 7, , he was fired original article from the Salem Register part 1 , part 2 from his position as Surveyor of the Port at the Salem Custom House when Zachary Taylor, a Whig, was elected president. Then, less than two months later, on July 31, his mother died.
