Nathaniel Hawthorne: Life Till the The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the son of a sea captain whose father was also actually a sea captain. Nathaniel’s father died when Nathaniel was only 4 years old. His poverty-stricken mother moved the small family (Nathaniel and his two sisters, Elizabeth and Maria Louisa) to the home of relatives in Salem. At the age of 9, Nathaniel seriously injured his foot and became a shut-in for several years. This time enabled him to read many books and deeply experience literature.

Nathaniel entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine, from which he graduated with the class of 1825. He then returned to his mother’s home in Salem to perfect his writing. His first novel, Fanshawe, was published in 1828. Realizing that his best form of expression was in the form of tales and short stories, he spent the next twelve years of his life living with his mother writing these.

In 1837, he published his first collection of stories, Twice Told Tales. At this time he met Miss Sophia Peabody, and the couple became engaged in 1838. For six months in 1841, he lived at Brook Farm, a communal project (which he used as the basis long work of fiction, The Blithedale Romance). In 1842, he married Sophia, and the two settled in Concord. For awhile, he and his wife merely enjoyed themselves living in their small home on very little money. In 1846, Nathaniel’s son Julian was born and Nathaniel published a collection of tales he had written, titled Mosses from an Old Manse. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, and has since been recognized by numerous critics as being one of the greatest American novels.