Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 - May 19, 1864) was a 19th century American novelist and short story author. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts and died in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Hawthorne's father was a sea captain and descendant of John Hathorn who was one of the judges who oversaw the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne's father died at sea in 1808 when Hawthorne was only four years old, and was raised secluded from the world by his mother.

Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine from 1821-1824 where he became friends with Longfellow and future president Franklin Pierce.

In 1842, he married illustrator and transcendentalist Sophia Peabody, and the two moved to the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, where they lived for three years. Their neighbors in Concord included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Like Hawthorne, Sophia was a reclusive person. She was, in fact, bedridden with headaches until her sister introduced her to Hawthorne after which her headaches seem to have abated. The Hawthornes enjoyed a long marriage, and Sophia was greatly enamored with her husband's work. In one of her journals, she writes: "I am always so dazzled and bewildered with the richness, the depth, the...jewels of beauty in his productions that I am always looking forward to a second reading where I can ponder and muse and fully take in the miraculous wealth of thoughts" (Jan 14th 1951, Journal of Sophia Hawthorne. Berg Collection NY Public Library).

The two had three children Una, Julian, and Rose. Una suffered from mental illness and died young. Julian moved out west and wrote a book about his father.

Hawthorne enjoyed a brief friendship with American novelist Herman Melville. The Friendship began on August 5 1850, when the two authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend. Melville had just read Hawthorne's short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse, which Melville later praised in a famous review, "Hawthorne and His Mosses." Melville's letters to Hawthorne provide insight into the composition of Moby-Dick. Hawthorne's letters to Melville to do not survive.

Much of Hawthorne's work regards morality, metaphysics, and his Puritan ancestry. "Ethan Brand" is about a lime-burner who sets off to find the Unpardonable Sin, and in doing so, commits it. "The Birth-Mark" concerns a young doctor who removes a birthmark from his wife's face, an operation which kills her. He discovers that it is the birthmark, the imperfect blemish itself, that has kept her alive.

Major Works

Major Romances

Short Story Collections

Twice-Told Tales (1827; expanded version 1851)
Mosses from an Old Manse (1846; expanded version 1854)
The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales (1852)

Works for Children

A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls (1852)
Tanglewood Tales (1853)

Miscellaneous Publications

The Life of Franklin Pierce (1852)

External links

Eric Eldred's excellent Hawthorne site at Eldritch Press contains all of Hawthorne's works, notes on the writings, annotated editions,and lots of other information.
The Hawthorne in Salem Website was funded in May of 2000 by a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a collaborative effort of North Shore Community College in Danvers, Massachusetts, and three Salem, Massachusetts museums with important Hawthorne collections.
Herman Melville's appreciation, "Hawthorne and His Mosses" (1850)
Henry James's important book-length study, Hawthorne (1879)