Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1860s
Born	(1804-07-04)July 4, 1804 Salem, Massachusetts
Died	May 19, 1864(1864-05-19) (aged 59) Plymouth, New Hampshire

Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American writer. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His first novel Fanshawe was published anonymously in 1828. Some short stories were published in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. He married Sophia Peabody in 1842. They had three children. The family moved about Massachusetts for a few years, but finally settled in Concord, Massachusetts. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850. The House of the Seven Gables was published in 1851. A political appointment sent Hawthorne and his family to Europe. They returned to Massachusetts in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864.

Hawthorne's works belong to the cultural movement called romanticism.^[1] His novels and short stories are cautionary tales. They suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humanity.^[2] Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England.^[3] They combine historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes. They border upon surrealism.^[4] His depictions of the past are a version of historical fiction used only as a vehicle to express common themes of ancestral sin, guilt and retribution.^[5]

1. ↑ Reynolds, David S. Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988: 524. ISBN 978-0-674-06565-9
2. ↑ Wayne, Tiffany K. (2006). Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-5626-2.
3. ↑ Bell, Michael Davitt (1971). Hawthorne and the Historical Romance of New England. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-06136-8.
4. ↑ Howe, Daniel Walker (2007). What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7.
5. ↑ Crews, 28–29