Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1804, into a family with deep roots in colonial New England. After graduating from Bowdoin College in 1825, he returned to Salem and spent years developing his distinctive voice as a writer of novels, romances, and short stories. He married Sophia Peabody in 1842, and the couple lived in Concord and elsewhere in Massachusetts.

Hawthorne’s writing often drew on Puritan history, moral conflict, and the uneasy relationship between individuals and society. His major works include Twice-Told Tales, Mosses from an Old Manse, The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860). He also held government positions, including work at the Salem Custom House and service as U.S. consul in Liverpool. He died in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on May 19, 1864.