Elaine Von Bruns Analysis

I have attended many talks given by writers and taken a few master classes on process. A question that is almost always asked of the master writer, in one form or another, is this; “What were your primary influences in completing this work?” Naturally writers vary in their responses and tend to mention people or events that inspired the project, or places/times of day they write, and sprinkle in any techniques or quirky habits that help them get the job done. I don’t recall ever hearing a writer mention a book, or books, as being highly influential on their work. I suspect we are being remiss in omitting them. There is a small irony in that.

The connection was not lost on Elaine Von Bruns, who serves as Honorary Curator at the

He likened it to literary archeology, adding, she “has done a masterful job of demonstrating the connection between reading and creative writing. It is surprising to see the broad range of subjects Hawthorne used to inform his own

Examples include: John Caspar Lavatar’s Essays on Physiognomy, published in 1792 were read by Hawthorne in 1828, and mentioned in his “The Gentle Boy,” published in 1832. Benjamin Franklin’s “Experiments and Observation on Electricity” (1774) is displayed with Hawthorne’s anecdotes about Franklin. He wrote about Franklin several times including this snippet from his Biographical Stories for Children; “It would take a whole volume of talk to tell you all that is worth knowing about Benjamin Franklin. There is a very pretty anecdote of his flying a kite in the midst of a thunderstorm, and thus drawing down the lightening from the clouds and proving that it was the same thing as electricity.” There is much like this example that is worth bringing school children to see. In fact, I learned from the exhibit that Hawthorne wrote extensively for children, and there is much that kids can learn from viewing it. He wrote A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls immediately after The House of the Seven Gables. That novel had sold 6,710 copies by August 1851, and A Wonder-Book sold 4,667 copies in just two months after its November 1851