Horatio Bridge made a significant contribution to American literature by guaranteeing against loss the publication of Twice-Told Tales (1837), the second book of his former college classmate, Nathaniel Hawthorne, at a time when the struggling author was more than usually impecunious. Hawthorne's acknowledgment in his preface to The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales (1851) of Bridge's financial assistance at a crucial time--"If anybody is responsible for my being at this day an author, it is yourself" and "For it was through your interposition ... that your early friend was brought before the public, somewhat more prominently than theretofore," in the first volume of Twice-told Tales--is often quoted. (Hawthorne was later able to return the favor by extending loans to Bridge.) Another Bowdoin College classmate, President Franklin Pierce, promoted Bridge to chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, U.S. Navy in 1854. His navy career led to his first book...