Nathaniel Hawthorne was a celebrated nineteenth century American literary figure who penned numerous critically acclaimed novels and short stories. Hawthorne’s writings were mostly Puritanical moral allegories set in New England. Element of Dark Romanticism, theme of inherent evil, moral dilemma and psychological complexity of human mind are explored in his works consistently. His notable works include Twice-Told Tales, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables.
Born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, Hawthorne was a descendant of a long line of Puritan ancestors. He was related to an unrepentant presiding magistrate involved in Salem witch trials, John Hathorne. So as not to identify himself with the scandalous Hathorne family, Hawthorne added a ‘w’ in his name in his youth. His father was a ship captain who died of yellow fever at sea when he was four years old. The sudden demise of his father made his mother very protective of him which engendered an isolated atmosphere for him. This period in his childhood rendered him shy and an avid reader which shaped his personality in such a way that led him to choose a career in writing.
In 1821, Hawthorne was enrolled at Bowdoin College and two years later elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduation in 1825, he pursued his passion for writing and published his first novel, Fanshawe, to negative response but disavowed the work later. He also served as an editor for the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. Moreover, he penned a host of acclaimed short stories for several periodicals. Some of these short fictions include the distinguished “Young Goodman Brown”, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, “Roger Malvin’s Burial” and “My Kinsman, Major Molineux”. However, none of these masterfully crafted works brought him in the limelight. These stories were later collected by Horatio Bridge in a volume, titled Twice-Told Tales, in 1837.
During late 1830s, Hawthorne became a Boston Custom House measurer to support himself financially. Eventually, he began to make satisfactory income through his writing and with that he married Sophia Peabody. Upon marriage, he moved to The Manse in Concord and joined the transcendentalist Utopian community. Around this time, he wrote most of the tales for his short story collection, Mosses from an Old Manse. He returned to his birthplace in 1845 and was appointed surveyor of the Boston Custom House. However, later he was dismissed from the position and as it happened he engaged himself in writing the manuscript for one of the English classics, The Scarlet Letter. He invested all his creative energy crafting the novel which resonates his intense suffering and mighty imagination. The novel became an instant and raging success and with the newfound confidence in his craft he continued to write vigorously.
In 1851, Hawthorne published a romance, entitled The House of the Seven Gables. The next year The Blithedale Romance appeared, his only work in first-person narration. Another one of his collection of tales based on myths, A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, was published in early 1850s. During this time, he bought Louisa May Alcott’s family house in Concord and named it The Wayside. Soon after his return from France and Italy, the Civil War broke out and he published an article related to the current state of affairs “Chiefly About War Matters“. Following a long period of physical and mental illness, Nathaniel Hawthorne passed away in Plymouth, New Hampshire in the spring of 1864. He was working on a novel, The Dolliver Romance, in his final days which was published posthumously.
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