The Token
Description
Collections of stories were popular gifts during the holiday season, and many were, like this one, published exclusively for that purpose. This particular collection was presented by Hawthorne to his mother, Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hawthorne.
Hawthorne had two stories published in this collection – “Peter Goldthwait’s Treasure” and “The Shaker Bridal” – but both are listed as being written by the “Author of ‘Twice-told Tales.” Hawthorne began his professional writing career in anonymity; it wasn’t until his friend Horatio Bridge revealed the author of the popular Twice-Told Tales to the public a year earlier that Hawthorne’s career took off in earnest.