Nathaniel Hawthorne

Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804, he grew up with a deep awareness of his family's Puritan history, including ties to the Salem witch trials. That sense of inherited guilt and moral complexity would become one of the most memorable parts of his writing. He studied at Bowdoin College, where he was a classmate of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce.

After years of publishing stories and sketches, he gained wide recognition with Twice-Told Tales and then reached a larger audience with The Scarlet Letter in 1850. He followed it with major works including The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, and The Marble Faun. His short stories, too, remain widely read for their eerie atmosphere and sharp sense of human weakness.

He also held public posts, including work at the Salem Custom House and later service as U.S. consul in Liverpool during Pierce's presidency. Hawthorne died in 1864, but his novels and tales still stand out for the way they blend history, symbolism, and psychological insight.