Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hathorne, as his name was originally spelled, arrived in the world on the 4th of July 1804, within the historic streets of Salem, Massachusetts. His family had deep roots there, stretching back to a great-great-great-grandfather named William Hathorne who emigrated from England. This ancestor became an important member of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and held political positions including magistrate and judge. He grew infamous for his harsh sentencing during those early colonial years. Another branch of the family included John Hathorne, one of the judges who oversaw the Salem witch trials. Nathaniel probably added the w to his surname in his early twenties after graduating from college. He did this in an effort to disassociate himself from these notorious forebears. The weight of this history followed him into adulthood.
Hawthorne entered Bowdoin College in 1821 with financial support from his uncle Robert Manning. He graduated in 1825 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824. During his time at school he met future president Franklin Pierce on the way to Bowdoin at a stage stop in Portland. They became fast friends immediately upon meeting. He also encountered future poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future congressman Jonathan Cilley. His first published work appeared anonymously in October 1828 as Fanshawe: A Tale. It cost him $100 to print and received generally positive reviews but did not sell well. He later tried to suppress it feeling that it was not equal to the standard of his later work. He distributed seven issues of The Spectator to his family in August and September 1820 for fun while still a student.
Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody on the 9th of July 1842, at a ceremony in the Peabody parlor on West Street in Boston. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, where they lived for three years. His neighbor Ralph Waldo Emerson invited him into his social circle but Hawthorne was almost pathologically shy and stayed silent at gatherings. At the Old Manse, Hawthorne wrote most of the tales collected in Mosses from an Old Manse. Sophia greatly admired her husband's work and wrote in one of her journals about looking forward to a second reading where she could ponder and muse and fully take in the miraculous wealth of thoughts. They had three children including Una born the 3rd of March 1844, Julian born in 1846, and Rose born in May 1851.
In April 1846, Hawthorne was officially appointed the Surveyor for the District of Salem and Beverly and Inspector of the Revenue for the Port of Salem at an annual salary of $1,200. He lost this job due to the change of administration in Washington after the presidential election of 1848. He wrote a letter of protest to the Boston Daily Advertiser which made his dismissal a much-talked about event in New England. With Pierce's election as President, Hawthorne was rewarded in 1853 with the position of United States consul in Liverpool. The role was considered the most lucrative foreign service position at the time described by Hawthorne's wife as second in dignity to the Embassy in London. During this period he and his family lived in the Rock Park estate in Rock Ferry in one of the houses directly adjacent to Tranmere Beach on the Wirral shore of the River Mersey. His appointment ended in 1857 at the close of the Pierce administration.
Hawthorne returned to writing and published The Scarlet Letter in mid-March 1850 including a preface that refers to his three-year tenure in the Custom House. It was one of the first mass-produced books in America selling 2,500 volumes within ten days and earning Hawthorne $1,500 over 14 years. The book became a best-seller in the United States and initiated his most lucrative period as a writer. Hawthorne defined a romance as being radically different from a novel by not being concerned with the possible or probable course of ordinary experience. In the preface to The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne describes his romance-writing as using atmospherical medium as to bring out or mellow the lights and deepen and enrich the shadows of the picture. His works belong to romanticism or more specifically dark romanticism suggesting that guilt sin and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humanity.
He became friends with Herman Melville beginning on the 5th of August 1850 when the authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend. Melville had just read Hawthorne's short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse and his unsigned review of the collection was printed in The Literary World on August 17 and 24 titled Hawthorne and His Mosses. Melville wrote that these stories revealed a dark side to Hawthorne shrouded in blackness ten times black. He was composing his novel Moby-Dick at the time and dedicated the work in 1851 to Hawthorne: In token of my admiration for his genius this book is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Edgar Allan Poe wrote important reviews of both Twice-Told Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse admitting that the style of Mr. Hawthorne is purity itself and his tone is singularly effective wild plaintive thoughtful and in full accordance with his themes.
Failing health prevented him from completing several more romance novels as he suffered from pain in his stomach. While on a tour of the White Mountains he died in his sleep on the 19th of May 1864, in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Pierce sent a telegram to Elizabeth Peabody asking her to inform Mrs. Hawthorne in person. Mrs. Hawthorne was too saddened by the news to handle the funeral arrangements herself. Hawthorne's son Julian learned of his father's death the next day coincidentally being initiated into the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity on the same day by being blindfolded and placed in a coffin. Longfellow wrote a tribute poem to Hawthorne published in 1866 called The Bells of Lynn. Hawthorne was buried on what is now known as Authors' Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts. Pallbearers included Longfellow Emerson Alcott Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr James T Fields and Edwin Percy Whipple.
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Common questions
When and where was Nathaniel Hawthorne born?
Nathaniel Hawthorne arrived in the world on the 4th of July 1804 within the historic streets of Salem Massachusetts. His family had deep roots there stretching back to a great-great-great-grandfather named William Hathorne who emigrated from England.
Why did Nathaniel Hawthorne change his surname from Hathorne to Hawthorne?
Nathaniel Hawthorne probably added the w to his surname in his early twenties after graduating from college. He did this in an effort to disassociate himself from notorious forebears including John Hathorne one of the judges who oversaw the Salem witch trials.
What major literary work did Nathaniel Hawthorne publish in mid-March 1850?
Hawthorne returned to writing and published The Scarlet Letter in mid-March 1850 including a preface that refers to his three-year tenure in the Custom House. It was one of the first mass-produced books in America selling 2,500 volumes within ten days and earning Hawthorne $1,500 over 14 years.
When did Nathaniel Hawthorne die and where did he pass away?
While on a tour of the White Mountains he died in his sleep on the 19th of May 1864 in Plymouth New Hampshire. His son Julian learned of his father's death the next day coincidentally being initiated into the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity on the same day by being blindfolded and placed in a coffin.
Who were some notable friends and contemporaries of Nathaniel Hawthorne?
He became friends with Herman Melville beginning on the 5th of August 1850 when the authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend. Edgar Allan Poe wrote important reviews of both Twice-Told Tales and Mosses from an Old Manse admitting that the style of Mr. Hawthorne is purity itself and his tone is singularly effective wild plaintive thoughtful and in full accordance with his themes.
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21 references cited across the entry
- 2bookFanshaweNathaniel Hawthorne — Marsh & Capen — 1828
- 3journalHawthorne Gossips about SalemEdward B. Hungerford — 1933
- 7bookMy Dear Sister: Nathaniel Hawthorne And His SistersKris A. Hansen — Mountain Ash Press — 2024
- 8bookDeath Passage on the Hudson: The Wreck of the Henry ClayKris A. Hansen — Purple Mountain Press, Ltd. — 2004
- 9journalNathaniel Hawthorne's Home in Rock ParkPeter Urquhart — Spring 2011
- 10journalNathaniel Hawthorne's House in Rock Park (Letter dated 1903-11-14 to the Liverpool Mercury)George Shaw — 1906
- 11webRock Ferry SlipwayJune 4, 2007
- 12webNathaniel Hawthorne's Untold TaleJack Matthews — August 15, 2010
- 16bookThat Wild Fellow John Neal and the American Literary RevolutionBenjamin Lease — University of Chicago Press — 1972
- 19bookThe Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne — Ohio State University Press — 1962
- 21bookFanshawe, a TaleNathaniel Hawthorne — Marsh & Capen, 362 Washington Street; press of Putnam & Hunt — 1828