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Novelist, b. at Salem, Massachusetts, son of a sea captain, who died in 1808, after which his mother led the life of a recluse. An accident when at play conduced to an early taste for reading, and from boyhood he cherished literary aspirations. His education was completed at Bowdoin Coll., where he had Longfellow for a fellow-student. After graduating, he obtained a post in the Custom-House, which, however, he did not find congenial, and soon gave up, betaking himself to literature, his earliest efforts, besides a novel, Fanshawe, which had no success, being short tales and sketches, which, after appearing in periodicals, were collected and published as Twice-told Tales (1837), followed by a second series in 1842.
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