Nathaniel Hawthorne

• 07/04/1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors, including John Hathorne, a presiding magistrate in the Salem witch trials
• Approx 1808 Father lost at sea
• 1828 Hawthorne`s first novel, FANSHAWE, appeared anonymously at his own expense
• 1836 He edited the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge in Boston
• 1837 compiled PETER PARLEY`S UNIVERSAL HISTORY for children.
• 1837 The second, expanded edition of TWICE TOLD TALES, was praised by Edgar Allan Poe in Graham`s Magazine.
• 1839 insufficient earnings as a writer forced Hawthorne to enter a career as a Boston Custom House measurer.
• 1841 GRANDFATHER`S CHAIR
• 1841 FAMOUS OLD PEOPLE
• 1841 LIBERTY TREE
• 1842 His writing finally amassed Hawthorne a sufficient income for him to marry Sophia Peabody and move to The Manse in Concord, which was at that time the center of the Transcendental movement
• 1842 BIOGRAPHICAL STORIES FOR CHILDREN
• 1842 Hawthorne became friends with the Transcendentalists in Concord, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who also drew on the Puritan legacy
• 1845 returned to Salem, where he was appointed surveyor of the Boston Custom House by President James Polk
• 1846 Once again, Hawthorne was unable to earn a living as a writer and in 1846 he was appointed surveyor of the Port of Salem
• 1850 THE SCARLET LETTER
• 1851 THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES
• 1851 THE SNOW IMAGE
• 1852 THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE
• 1860 THE MARBLE FAUN
• 1863 OUR OLD HOME
• 1864 Hawthorne passed away on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire after a long period of illness in which he suffered severe bouts of dementia

Influences on Hawthorne

1. Salem – early childhood, later work at the Custom House.

2. Puritan family background – one of his forefathers was Judge Hathorne (notice the difference in spelling), who presided over the Salem witchcraft trials, 1692.

3. Belief in the existence of the devil.

4. Belief in determinism.

5. A philosophical/spiritual movement called transcendentalism.