author
Hildegarde Hawthorne
1871–1952
Known for ghost stories, poetry, and biographies, she came from one of America’s most famous literary families but built a varied writing career of her own. Her work ranged from supernatural fiction to lively books for younger readers and studies of major literary figures.
1 Audiobook
Girls in Bookland
by Hildegarde Hawthorne
About the author
Born in New York City in 1871, Hildegarde Hawthorne was the granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne and the daughter of writer Julian Hawthorne. She spent parts of her childhood in Europe and Jamaica, and that broad early experience fed a writing life that would become both productive and wide-ranging.
She wrote supernatural and ghost stories, poems, children’s literature, and biographies. Alongside fiction, she produced books on literary and historical figures, including work connected to her family’s legacy, and she became known as a dependable, versatile author who could move easily between imaginative storytelling and nonfiction.
Hawthorne died in 1952, but she remains especially interesting to readers who enjoy early supernatural fiction and literary family history. Her career shows how a writer can inherit a famous name and still shape a distinct voice through curiosity, range, and steady work.