Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Hawthorne
Guilt and the Past
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer seemingly

haunted by Americas Puritan heritage. His short stories and
novels are primarily set in the distant past, and they often include
allusions to real life events and real life historical figures. In
Hawthorne, the reader does not encounter an idealized group of
Pilgrims or Puritans. Instead, they are seen as complete humans,
often filled with hypocrisy, self-doubt, and self-destructive
guilt. Hawthorne was born on the 4th of July, 1804, in Salem,
Massachusetts. He was the son of Elizabeth Clarke Manning
and Nathaniel Hathorne (the original spelling of the family last
name). His father was a Captain in the U. S. Navy who died
when Nathaniel was four years old. His knowledge and feelings
toward Americas early colonists was in part based on his own
ancestors, who were some of the first Puritans to settle in the New
England area. One of these was John Hathorne, born in 1641,
who was a judge in Salem during his lifetime and one of those
who presided at the infamous witch trials of 1692. Scholars of
Hawthorne have generated

a lot of speculation about
the guilt Nathaniel
may have felt because
of his ancestry. There is
a reference to the witch
trials in Young Goodman
Brown, and the novel
The House of the Seven
Gables (1851) concerns
how the wrong-doing of
one generation lives into
the successive ones, and
. . . becomes a pure and
uncontrollable mischief.
This last quote is from
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne himself,
. . . as a young man
and a man accused of
witchcraft is at the heart of that novel. It has even been proposed
that Nathaniel Hawthorne changed the spelling of his last name
because of this guilt, although this is pure conjecture. It is just
as plausible to suggest that he changed the spelling while still in
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college to more accurately reflect how the name was pronounced
(Haw-thorne rather than Hay-thorne). As a writer, Hawthorne
can be similarly ambiguous. He wrote stories that asked large
questions (guilt, religion, faith, hypocrisy), but he provided few
answers.
A Late Start
Hawthorne was always a gifted writer, but he did not achieve
recognition until he was almost 40-years-old. He attended
Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine
(1821-24) along with fellow poet Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow and future
American President Franklin Pierce
(Hawthorne used his college connections
later in life, writing a biography of Pierce
in 1852). After Bowdoin, Hawthorne
moved back home and, unmarried and
unattached, more or less wrote during the
day and wandered the streets of Salem
until late in the night. A first novel,
Fanshawe, was published anonymously
in 1828 -- four years after he graduated
from college -- and his next collected
work, Twice Told Tales (1837), appeared
nine years later. The short stories The
May-Pole of Merry Mount and The
Ministers Black Veil are included in this
collection. He did not marry until 1842 at
the age of 38.
A Happy Marriage
Although he had previously courted her sister, Hawthorne
proposed to Sophia Peabody with whom he would have three
children. He and his wife were well suited. Both were followers
of Trancendentalism, although Hawthorne used one novel
(The Blithedale Romance) to make fun of the transcendentalist
community Brook Farm, where he lived for one year in 1841.
After his marriage, he continued to write. His next collection of
short stories was Moses from an Old Manse in 1846. The short
story Young Goodman Brown was part
of that work.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
. . . in his fifties
Eventually, the couple had three

children: daughters Una (1844-1877)
and Rose (1851-1926), and future
author Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934).
The Hawthornes lived in the heart of
Transcendentalist country, Concord,
Massachusetts, and were friends with
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other
followers of that belief. Hawthorne
was also friends with Herman Melville,
who dedicated Moby Dick to him in
1851. Hawthorne had published his
masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, one year
earlier in 1850.
To supplement the income earned
from his writing, Hawthorne sought
political favor and appointments most of
his life. In 1853, he was named the U.S.
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Consul for Liverpool, England. The family traveled throughout
Europe and lived for a time in France and Italy where they met
fellow authors Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband
Robert Browning. While in Italy, Hawthorne wrote The Marble
Faun (1860). Nathaniel Hawthorne died at age 60 in 1864 of
throat cancer. He is buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in
Concord, Mass.
Click on the audio file below

to hear a recording of
The Ministers Black Veil
Other recordings of Nathaniel Hawthorne can be accessed at

LIBRIVOX, a free audiobook website:
http://librivox.org/twice-told-tales-by-nathaniel-hawthorne/
Hester Pryne
Hawthornes heroine from The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer seemingly

Hawthorne have generated

Eventually, the couple had three

Click on the audio file below

Other recordings of Nathaniel Hawthorne can be accessed at

Hawthornes heroine from The Scarlet Letter

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