In 1838 he noted in his journal, "Elizabeth Peabody brought me yesterday Hawthorne's 'Footprints on the Seashore' to read.

I complained there was no inside to it.

Alcott and he together would make a man." Later, when Hawthorne came to live in Concord, Emerson did his best to get better acquainted; but it was of little use; they had too little in common.

Both men were great walkers, and yet they seldom walked together.

They went to Harvard to see the Shakers, and Emerson recorded it as a "satisfactory tramp; we had good talk on the way." After Hawthorne's death, Emerson made the following entry in his journal: "I thought him a greater man than any of his works betray; there was still a great deal of work in him, and he might one day show a purer power.