Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was descended from a prominent New England family – his great-great-grandfather John Hathorne was a judge in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Hawthorne added the “w” to his last name to distance himself from this legacy. His father, Nathaniel Hathorne Sr, was a sea captain who died of yellow fever when Hawthorne was four years old. He was raised by his mother along with his two sisters in a reclusive household dominated by female relatives.

In his youth, Hawthorne suffered an injury that left him bedridden for several years, which perhaps contributed to his introspective personality. He had little formal schooling but read extensively in his family’s large library. After attending Bowdoin College in Maine, he returned to Salem determined to become a writer. He penned several unpublished novels before self-publishing his first commercial success in 1837, a historical novel titled Fanshawe.

However, it was his story collection Twice Told Tales (1837) and especially his novels The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852) that brought him wider acclaim. The Scarlet Letter, his masterpiece set in Puritan New England, tackles themes of sin, guilt and redemption. Hawthorne became renowned for his dark romanticism, use of allegory, and psychological complexity. His fiction often criticized Puritan attitudes but he also emphasized moral dilemmas and personal responsibility.

In 1842 Hawthorne married artist and intellectual Sophia Peabody. He joined the utopian community Brook Farm for a time but soon became disillusioned with the transcendentalist movement. Seeking inspiration and financial security, he took a job at the Salem custom house from 1846-1849 until losing his position due to his political affiliations. Their ensuing poverty challenged but also shaped his writing career.

Later Hawthorne held prominent government positions including working in the U.S. consulate in Liverpool, England 1853-1857 and as a political appointee under President Franklin Pierce. When his old college friend Pierce was elected president, he rewarded Hawthorne with the prestigious consulship position in recognition of his contribution to American literature. The family spent several years abroad in England and Italy which informed later acclaimed novels about European history, notably The Marble Faun (1860).

In failing health after years of reclusion devoted to writing, Hawthorne died in his sleep on a trip to the White Mountains in 1864 at age 59. His work influenced succeeding literary greats including his friend Herman Melville, poet Emily Dickinson and novelist Henry James. Hawthorne’s dark romantic vision and moral insight into the depths of human nature remain powerful even centuries after his Gothic tales were penned. Though a famously solitary man, his fictional portraits continue to fascinate readers today as genuine reflections of the complex drama of the human soul.