Nathaniel Hawthorne Research Paper

The History of Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer. He was born in Salem Massachusetts to a New England family with a puritan background. The family name was actually Hathorne but Nathaniel Hawthorne added a w to his name to distinguish himself from the rest of the people in the family. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most well-known book is “The Scarlet Letter”. Nathaniel Hawthorne was living in the same time period as Ralph Waldo Emerson (Clendenning 1). In 1808, when Nathaniel Hawthorne was four years old, his father died of yellow fever in Suriname and his wife had to be dependent upon relatives. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s uncle gave him some money to go to college. The college was called Bowdoin College, and it was a choice

He spent a lot of time reading and writing there. He tried to make a collection of short stories published, but he failed and threw them in the fire. One of his classmates told him to publish more stories and even offered money. Nathaniel Hawthorne did publish more stories and made a book called “Twice-Told Tales” and it got a lot of good reviews. “Twice-Told Tales” was published in 1837, which was 12 years since Nathaniel Hawthorne graduated from college. Since he lived with his mother, they didn’t have much money. In 1839, Nathaniel Hawthorne got a job at the Boston Custom House weighing and gauging salt and coal. The previous year, Nathaniel Hawthorne had met a woman named Sophia Peabody, and they were in love. When Nathaniel Hawthorne got the job in 1939, he had to be separated from Sophia Peabody, which was hard for both of them. Nathaniel Hawthorne resigned from his job in 1841, and he got a new job that he hoped would make enough money to marry Sophia. He made enough money and he and Sophia got married in 1842 (Lauter,

The income from the publishing short stories still left much to be desired and the couple moved in with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mother in Salem in 1845. Nathaniel Hawthorne got a job at the Salem Custom House. In 1848, Zachary Taylor won the election and Nathaniel Hawthorne lost his job as a result. The next year his mother died. The same year, Nathaniel Hawthorne found a worn letter A in his attic and it was an inspiration for him to write “The Scarlet Letter”. “The Scarlet Letter” was released in 1850 and was one of the first mass-produced books in the United States (Whitney, 2).

After Nathaniel Hawthorne finished “The Scarlet Letter”, The Hawthorne’s moved into a farmhouse in Lenox, Massachusetts. That year, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “The House of the Seven Gables” and became friends with Herman Melville. Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick and was inspired to write it because of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 1851, the Hawthorne’s moved back to Concord to live in a place called Alcott’s