SOURCE: Hurst, Luanne Jenkins. “The Chief Employ of Her Life: Sophia Peabody Hawthorne's Contribution to Her Husband's Career.” In Hawthorne and Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition, edited by John L. Idol, Jr. and Melinda M. Ponder, pp. 45-54. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

In the following essay, Hurst concentrates on Hawthorne's indefatigable support of her husband in his literary pursuits.

Sophia Hawthorne once wrote to her sister Mary Mann: “If I could help my husband in his labors, I feel that that would be the chief employ of my life. But all I can do for him externally is to mend his shirts & socks—spiritually, it is another thing” (6 Apr. 1845, ms., Berg Collection).¹ Ironically, she seems not to have realized how much she did do to help Nathaniel Hawthorne “in his labors.” Sophia was always Nathaniel's most devoted admirer, and in her letters she consistently promoted...