Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th-century American author who opposed the transcendentalist movement and believed that sin was inherent in man. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and educated at Bowdoin College. He published his first book of stories, Twice-Told Tales, in 1837 and became engaged to Sophia Peabody in 1838. They joined a Transcendentalist utopian society known as Brook Farm in 1841 but left the same year. Hawthorne’s best-known novel, The Scarlet Letter, was published in 1850. He died on May 19, 1864, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th-century American author of novels and short stories. He was the leading figure in the anti-transcendentalist movement, which opposed the claim of transcendentalist such as Henry David Thoreau that man is inherently good. Hawthorne’s work frequently deals with the idea that sin is inherent in man and inevitable. He makes heavy use of allegory and many of his stories about him can be read as a moral lesson – often that no one can escape their sinful nature and that everyone should practice tolerance accordingly.
He was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804. Hawthorne’s ancestor, John Hathorne, presided over the Salem witchcraft trials and was the only judge who did not later repent of his actions. It has been speculated that guilt over this fact drove the gloomy philosophy into much of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing. He may also have added the w to his surname to distance himself from his relative. She lost his father, also named Nathaniel, to yellow fever at the age of four.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was educated at Bowdoin College, where he became lifelong friends with poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future US president Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne devoted much of his time to writing and published the first book of stories, Twice-Told Tales, in 1837. This volume contained many of his most famous short stories about him, including “Dr. Heidegger’s experiment” and “The minister’s black veil”.
Hawthorne became engaged to the painter Sophia Peabody in 1838 and the couple joined a Transcendentalist utopian society known as Brook Farm in 1841. However, the author was not amused and they left the community the same year. In 1842, they married and moved to the Old Manse, a house in Concord, Massachusetts built by the father of Transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. During the three years the couple spent at the Old Manse, Hawthorne worked on his second book of short stories, Mosses from an Old Manse (1846). In 1847, he and his wife moved to another house in Concord called Wayside.
In 1846, Hawthorne obtained a position at the Salem Custom House, but lost the job due to his political affiliation just two years later when the Whig party gained control of the presidency. Fortunately, his writing career benefited, and his best-known novel, The Scarlet Letter, was published in 1850. The House of the Seven Gables was published the following year, and The Blithedale Romance appeared in 1852.
The following year, 1853, Franklin Pierce was sworn in as President of the United States, and Hawthorne, who had written Pierce’s campaign biography, was employed again, this time as United States Consul in Liverpool. When his tenure ended in 1857, he traveled to Europe with his wife and three children. In 1860, they returned to Wayside and Hawthorne published his last novel, The Marble Faun, the same year. His health began to decline rapidly for unknown reasons and he died on May 19, 1864 in New Hampshire, where he was traveling with Franklin Pierce. The writer is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s stories have often been anthologized since his death and are among the cornerstones of 19th century horror fiction. The Scarlet Letter, one of America’s first gothic novels, has been immensely popular since its publication and has been adapted for film several times, first in 1917. Hawthorne is also notable for being the first writer to experiment with alternate history in fiction. He has inspired other writers, including Herman Melville, and has a deserved place in the American literary canon.
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