The mysterious author we know as Nathaniel Hawthorne was born over two centuries ago on July 4, 1804. Salem, Massachusetts, home to the infamous witch trials of 1692, served as both his birthplace and his favorite location for devising novelistic plots. Two of his most famous novels, The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables, were each located in the Salem setting. According to Robert Herrick, “Nathaniel Hawthorne was of unmixed New England descent” and had never ventured beyond the states comprising New England, save for one trip to Niagara. But what was it about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life that made his work so intriguing?
Perhaps it was Hawthorne’s ancestral history that gave his writings such color. Some of his earliest ancestors were among those who persecuted and interrogated presumed witches during the Salem trials, and their actions apparently haunted Nathaniel so much that they show up at times through different antagonistic characters in his writings. But the rich and shady history of Salem itself was colorful enough to give his novels an shadowy atmosphere. There is a popular story that, in an effort to distinguish himself from his malignant predecessors, Nathaniel changed his name from the family spelling of “Hathorne” to “Hawthorne.” The validity of the story is still under controversy, however.
Little is known about Hawthorne’s early life. We do know that he was quite fond of poets such as Shakespeare and Milton, and also of being alone with nature. It was during this young period of his life when he began taking his writing abilities seriously. Presumably, though, his parents didn’t think too highly of being a writer for a living. Allegedly, Nathaniel quipped the following in a letter to his mother:
“I do not want to be a doctor and live by men’s diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by their quarrels. So I do not see that there is anything left for me but to be an author.”
Although his editorial beginnings were rough for him financially, Hawthorne obviously was able to pull through and eventually establish himself as a professional. He eventually had to take on other duties as well, since being an author during this time did not guarantee fiscal security.
In 1842, at the age of thirty-six, Nathaniel married Sophia Peabody and fathered three children with her – two daughters and one son. For a short time, Nathaniel moved his family abroad to Liverpool, England to operate as the U.S. Consul there. Here he met England’s famous playwright and poet, Robert Browning. During his lifetime he also became friends with President Franklin Pierce and literary great, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These literary and political friends all grieved his passing on May 19, 1964. His wife carried on some of his works until her death in 1871.
Works Cited
LoveToKnow Corporation. (2002). Biography, life, and literature of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Retrieved November 19, 2008, from http://www.2020site.org/literature/nathaniel_hawthorne.html.
Online-Literature. (2006). Nathaniel Hawthorne, biography and works. Retrieved November 19, 2008, from http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/.
