"My Kinsman, Major Molineux" was first published in the 1832 edition of The Token, an annual book of essays, poetry, and short fiction to which Hawthorne contributed several pieces over the years. The story was published anonymously, and it was not until 1836, when journalist Park Benjamin wrote a review of that year's Token, that the reading public came to know Hawthorne's name. Having read "a sufficient number of his pieces to make the reputation of a dozen of our Yankee scribblers," he praises Hawthorne's style, and his modesty in remaining anonymous. "If Mr. Hawthorne would but collect his various tales and essays into one volume," Benjamin notes, "we can assure him that their success would be brilliant—certainly in England, perhaps in this country." Hawthorne did issue a collection the next year, and it did sell well, but it did not include "My Kinsman, Major Molineux...