Popularizing the Gothic literature style through his large assortment of expertly-written works, Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the most prolific authors throughout the Romantic period of the early 1800’s. Born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel grew up in a relatively poor household. Devastatingly, his father died during a sea voyage in 1908 and ultimately left his family scrambling to find a way to recover and survive. As a result of this, Nathaniel and his family were forced to move in permanently with their wealthier relatives, the Manning’s, in Salem for ten years before eventually moving to Maine. During his time in Maine, Nathaniel begrudgingly enrolled at Bowdoin College in 1821 with financial support from his relatives. …show more content…
Moving into the utopian Brook Farm community, he was able to further develop his writing skills and simultaneously develop a romantic relationship with young transcendentalist and illustrator Sophie Peabody. After several years of courtship, the couple finally married in July 1842 and settled into a small home in Concord, Massachusetts where they had the first of their children. With the sudden financial burden of a family, Nathaniel was forced to uproot his wife and child and move back to Salem after only two years. To gain financial security, he took a job as a Democratic surveyor in the Salem Custom House but he was fired a little later upon the election of Whig leader Zachary Taylor as president. While his firing appeared to be a sign of impending doom on the family, it ultimately led to the development and publication of his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter. Becoming one of the first mass-produced novels in the United States, the intriguing story, which vastly differed in style from many other publications at the time, was an acclaimed smash success that made Hawthorne one of the most prominent and wealthiest American authors of the time