Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, to Captain Nathaniel Hawthorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning. After his father’s death, Hawthorne’s mother moved the family to Raymond, Maine, where they lived virtually isolated from society. In 1825, Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin College, and in 1828 he published his first novel, “Fanshawe.” Although the novel brought him little recognition, he continued to write, publishing short stories in “The Token” and “New England Magazine.” In 1837, he published “Twice-Told Tales,” his well-received collection of previously published stories. After working in the Boston Custom House from 1839 to 1841, Hawthorne spent six months living with a utopian community at Brook Farm, an experience that he would later describe in his novel “The Blithedale Romance.” In 1842, he married Sophia Peabody and moved to the Old Manse house in Concord, Massachusetts. There, he wrote several short stories that would be published in the collection “Mosses from an Old Manse” (1846), including “Young Goodman Brown,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” “The Celestial Railroad,” “Feathertop: A Moralized Legend,” and “The Birthmark.” From 1846 to 1849, Hawthorne lived in Salem, where he wrote his masterpiece, “The Scarlet Letter” (1850). He then published the novels “The House of Seven Gables” (1851) and “The Blithedale Romance” (1852), followed by his biography “The Life of Franklin Pierce” (1852), which brought him an appointment as consul in Liverpool after Pierce was elected president. He held the position for four years before resigning to travel throughout England and Italy. His travels inspired two books, “The Marble Faun” (1860) and “Our Old Home” (1863), a collection of sketches written during his time in England. Hawthorne returned to Concord in 1860. He died on May 19, 1864, in Plymouth, New Hampshire.