NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
1804-1864
American novelist and short story writer,
known for his “Dark Romance” novels.
His works were mostly set in New England and focused on history, morality and religion.
“Dark Romantics” tend to draw attention to
the unintended consequences and complications that arise
from well-intended efforts at social reform.
Early Life
Hawthorne’s novel The House of Seven Gables (1851) was probably influenced by an ancestor,
as well as the home of a cousin in Salem, Massachusetts that he visited.
One of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ancestors was Judge John Hathorne,
a harsh judge from the Salem witch trials.
Nathaniel eventually changed his name to Hawthorne, perhaps for this reason.
The house is thought to have been based on the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion in Salem,
which used to have seven gables when it was built in 1668.
It was owned by Hawthorne’s cousin Susannah Ingersoll,
and he visited there often as a youth.
Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College where he was friendly
with future president Franklin Pierce and future poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
He started writing short stories while working other jobs.
Brook Farm
From April to November of 1841, he and his future wife Sophia Peabody
joined a Transcendentalist Utopian community, called Brook Farm –
not so much for its ideals, but to save money.
He drew upon these experiences for his novel The Blithedale Romance (1852).
Married Life
Nathaniel and his wife lived in Massachusetts: first Concord, then Salem, followed by Lenox in the Berkshires.
They had three children.
Both Nathaniel and his wife were shy and quite reclusive,
although he did meet Herman Melville in Lenox and Melville dedicated “Moby Dick” to Hawthorne.
Major Works
Many of Hawthorne’s famous works were published while he lived in Lenox.
The Scarlet Letter (1850) ,
one of the first mass-produced novels in America – it was an instant best-seller.
The House of the Seven Gables (1851).
The Blithedale Romance (1852) – his only work in the first-person.
The family moved back to Concord, where their neighbors included
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
Later Life
Hawthorne wrote the campaign biography of his college friend,
The Life of Franklin Pierce.
When Pierce was elected President,
Hawthorne was given a US consul position in Liverpool, England.
In 1860 he returned to Concord.
He died in his sleep in 1864
during a tour of the White Mountains in Plymouth, New Hampshire.
