In January 1836 , Nathaniel Hawthorne moved from Salem to Boston to assume the editorship of The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge . It wasn’t a typical editorial arrangement. Hawthorne would not manage a staff of writers, or make assignments to a network of correspondents. The lean budget required him to rely entirely on a single contributor: himself. The issues that Hawthorne produced are, in fact, full of useful and entertaining knowledge . He published essays on John C.