Editing Nathaniel Hawthorne (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
[[File:Nathaniel Hawthorne.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait of Nathaniel Hawthorne by [[Charles Osgood (artist)|Charles Osgood]], 1841 (Peabody Essex Museum)]]
Nathaniel Hathorne, as his name was originally spelled, was born on July 4, 1804, in [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], Massachusetts; [[Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace|his birthplace]] is preserved and open to the public.<ref>Haas, Irvin. ''Historic Homes of American Authors''. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991: 118. {{ISBN|0891331808}}.</ref> His great-great-great-grandfather, [[William Hathorne]],<!-- The correct spelling of his ancestor is "HATHORNE", without the "w". Please do not alter it. --> was a [[Puritan]] and the first of the family to emigrate from England. He settled in [[Dorchester, Massachusetts]], before moving to Salem. There he became an important member of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] and held many political positions, including magistrate and judge, becoming infamous for his harsh sentencing.<ref>Miller, 20–21</ref> William's son, Hawthorne's great-great-grandfather [[John Hathorne]] was one of the judges who oversaw the [[Salem witch trials]]. Hawthorne probably added the "w" to his surname in his early twenties, shortly after graduating from college, in an effort to dissociate himself from his notorious forebears.<ref>McFarland, 18</ref> Hawthorne's father Nathaniel Hathorne Sr. was a sea captain who died in 1808 of [[yellow fever]] in [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Dutch Suriname]];<ref>Wineapple, 20–21</ref> he had been a member of the [[East India Marine Society]].<ref name=hungerford1933>{{cite journal |title=Hawthorne Gossips about Salem |author=Edward B. Hungerford |journal= New England Quarterly |volume= 6 |issue=3 |pages=445–469 |year= 1933 |jstor=359552 |doi=10.2307/359552 }}</ref> After his death, his widow moved with young Nathaniel, his older sister [[Elizabeth Manning Hawthorne|Elizabeth]], and their younger sister Louisa to live with relatives named the Mannings in Salem,<ref>McFarland, 17</ref> where they lived for 10 years. Young Hawthorne was hit on the leg while playing "bat and ball" on November 10, 1813,<ref>Miller, 47</ref> and he became lame and bedridden for a year, though several physicians could find nothing wrong with him.<ref>Mellow, 18</ref>

[[File:Nathaniel Hawthorne's Childhood Home in Raymond, ME.JPG|thumb|left|Nathaniel Hawthorne's childhood home in [[Raymond, Maine]], built in 1804<ref>Glassford, Martha Watkins and Pamela Watkins Grant. ''Raymond and Casco''. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2001: 11. {{ISBN|978-0-7385-7398-4}}</ref>]]
In the summer of 1816, the family lived as boarders with farmers<ref>Mellow, 20</ref> before moving to a home recently built specifically for them by Hawthorne's uncles Richard and Robert Manning in [[Raymond, Maine]], near [[Sebago Lake]].<ref>Miller, 50</ref> Years later, Hawthorne looked back at his time in Maine fondly: "Those were delightful days, for that part of the country was wild then, with only scattered clearings, and nine tenths of it primeval woods."<ref>Mellow, 21</ref> In 1819, he was sent back to Salem for school and soon complained of homesickness and being too far from his mother and sisters.<ref>Mellow, 22</ref> He distributed seven issues of ''The Spectator'' to his family in August and September 1820 for fun. The homemade newspaper was written by hand and included essays, poems, and news featuring the young author's adolescent humor.<ref>Miller, 57</ref>

Hawthorne's uncle Robert Manning insisted that the boy attend college, despite Hawthorne's protests.<ref name=Edwards>Edwards, Herbert. "[http://www.hawthorneassoc.com/html/downeast_mag.html Nathaniel Hawthorne in Maine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228215328/http://www.hawthorneassoc.com/html/downeast_mag.html |date=December 28, 2019 }}", ''Downeast Magazine'', 1962</ref> With the financial support of his uncle, Hawthorne was sent to [[Bowdoin College]] in 1821, partly because of family connections in the area, and also because of its relatively inexpensive tuition rate.<ref>Wineapple, 44–45</ref> Hawthorne met future president [[Franklin Pierce]] on the way to Bowdoin, at the stage stop in Portland, and the two became fast friends.<ref name=Edwards/> Once at the school, he also met future poet [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], future congressman [[Jonathan Cilley]], and future naval reformer [[Horatio Bridge]].<ref>Cheever, 99</ref> He graduated with the class of 1825, and later described his college experience to [[Richard Henry Stoddard]]: {{blockquote|I was educated (as the phrase is) at Bowdoin College. I was an idle student, negligent of college rules and the Procrustean details of academic life, rather choosing to nurse my own fancies than to dig into Greek roots and be numbered among the learned Thebans.<ref>Miller, 76</ref>}}

===Early career===
[[File:CustomHouseStreet Boston.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Boston Custom House]], Custom House Street, where Hawthorne worked c. 1839–40<ref>George Edwin Jepson. "Hawthorne in the Boston Custom House". [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZGgeAQAAIAAJ ''The Bookman'']. August 1904.</ref>]]

Hawthorne's first published work, [[Fanshawe (novel)|''Fanshawe: A Tale'']], based on his experiences at Bowdoin College, appeared anonymously in October 1828, printed at the author's own expense of $100.{{sfn|Mellow|1980|pp= 41–42}} Although it received generally positive reviews, it did not sell well. He published several minor pieces in the ''[[Salem Gazette]]''.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Life%26Times/Family/Introduction.html| title = "Hawthorne in Salem", North Shore Community College| access-date = July 4, 2021| archive-date = May 10, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210510081244/http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Life%26Times/Family/Introduction.html| url-status = dead}}</ref>

In 1836, Hawthorne served as the editor of the ''[[American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge]]''. At the time, he boarded with poet [[Thomas Green Fessenden]] on Hancock Street in Beacon Hill in [[Boston]].<ref>Wineapple, 87–88</ref> He was offered an appointment as weigher and gauger at the [[Boston Custom House]] at a salary of $1,500 a year, which he accepted on January 17, 1839.<ref>Miller, 169</ref> During his time there, he rented a room from [[George Stillman Hillard]], business partner of [[Charles Sumner]].<ref>Mellow, 169</ref> Hawthorne wrote in the comparative obscurity of what he called his "owl's nest" in the family home. As he looked back on this period of his life, he wrote: "I have not lived, but only dreamed about living."<ref>Letter to Longfellow, June 4, 1837.</ref> He contributed short stories to various magazines and annuals, including "[[Young Goodman Brown]]" and "[[The Minister's Black Veil]]", though none drew major attention to him. [[Horatio Bridge]] offered to cover the risk of collecting these stories in the spring of 1837 into the volume ''[[Twice-Told Tales]]'', which made Hawthorne known locally.<ref>McFarland, 22–23</ref>

===Marriage and family===
[[File:Sophia Peabody by Chester Harding (PEM 2016.59.1A) - crop.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|left|Portrait of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne by [[Chester Harding (painter)|Chester Harding]], 1830 (Peabody Essex Museum)]]
While at Bowdoin, Hawthorne wagered a bottle of [[Madeira wine]] with his friend Jonathan Cilley that Cilley would get married before Hawthorne did.<ref>Manning Hawthorne, "Nathaniel Hawthorne at Bowdoin", ''The New England Quarterly'', Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 1940): 246–279.</ref> By 1836, he had won the bet, but he did not remain a bachelor for life. He had public flirtations with Mary Silsbee and [[Elizabeth Peabody]],<ref>Cheever, 102</ref> then he began pursuing Peabody's sister, the [[illustrator]] and [[transcendentalism|transcendentalist]] [[Sophia Hawthorne|Sophia Peabody]]. He joined the transcendentalist [[Utopia]]n community at [[Brook Farm (Boston, Massachusetts)|Brook Farm]] in 1841, not because he agreed with the experiment but because it helped him save money to marry Sophia.<ref>McFarland, 83</ref> He paid a $1,000 deposit and was put in charge of shoveling the hill of manure referred to as "the Gold Mine".<ref>Cheever, 104</ref> He left later that year, though his Brook Farm adventure became an inspiration for his novel ''[[The Blithedale Romance]]''.<ref name="McFarland, 149">McFarland, 149</ref> Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody on July 9, 1842, at a ceremony in the Peabody parlor on West Street in Boston.<ref>Wineapple, 160</ref> The couple moved to [[The Old Manse]] in [[Concord, Massachusetts]],<ref>McFarland, 25</ref> where they lived for three years. His neighbor [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] invited him into his social circle, but Hawthorne was almost pathologically shy and stayed silent at gatherings.<ref>Schreiner, 123</ref> At the Old Manse, Hawthorne wrote most of the tales collected in ''[[Mosses from an Old Manse]]''.<ref>Miller, 246–247</ref>
[[File:Hawthorne children mmd368 l.jpg|thumb|right|Una, Julian, and Rose c. 1862]]
Like Hawthorne, Sophia was a reclusive person. Throughout her early life, she had frequent [[migraine]]s and underwent several experimental medical treatments.<ref>Mellow, 6–7</ref> She was mostly bedridden until her sister introduced her to Hawthorne, after which her headaches seem to have abated. The Hawthornes enjoyed a long and happy marriage. He referred to her as his "Dove" and wrote that she "is, in the strictest sense, my sole companion; and I need no other—there is no vacancy in my mind, any more than in my heart ... Thank God that I suffice for her boundless heart!"<ref>McFarland, 87</ref> Sophia greatly admired her husband's work. She wrote in one of her journals:
<blockquote>I am always so dazzled and bewildered with the richness, the depth, the&nbsp;... jewels of beauty in his productions that I am always looking forward to a second reading where I can ponder and muse and fully take in the miraculous wealth of thoughts.<ref>January 14, 1851, Journal of Sophia Hawthorne. Berg Collection NY Public Library.</ref></blockquote>

Poet [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|Ellery Channing]] came to the Old Manse for help on the first anniversary of the Hawthornes' marriage. A local teenager named Martha Hunt had drowned herself in the river and Hawthorne's boat ''Pond Lily'' was needed to find her body. Hawthorne helped recover the corpse, which he described as "a spectacle of such perfect horror&nbsp;... She was the very image of death-agony".<ref>Schreiner, 116–117</ref> The incident later inspired a scene in his novel ''The Blithedale Romance''.

The Hawthornes had three children. Their first was daughter Una, born March 3, 1844; her name was a reference to ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'', to the displeasure of family members.<ref>McFarland, 97</ref> Hawthorne wrote to a friend, "I find it a very sober and serious kind of happiness that springs from the birth of a child&nbsp;... There is no escaping it any longer. I have business on earth now, and must look about me for the means of doing it."<ref>Schreiner, 119</ref> In October 1845, the Hawthornes moved to Salem.<ref name="Reynolds, 10">Reynolds, 10</ref> In 1846, their son [[Julian Hawthorne|Julian]] was born. Hawthorne wrote to his sister Louisa on June 22, 1846: "A small troglodyte made his appearance here at ten minutes to six o'clock this morning, who claimed to be your nephew."<ref>Mellow, 273</ref> Daughter [[Rose Hawthorne Lathrop|Rose]] was born in May 1851, and Hawthorne called her his "autumnal flower".<ref>Miller, 343–344</ref>

===Middle years===
[[File:Nathaniel Hawthorne by Whipple c1848.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Daguerrotype]] of Hawthorne, [[John Adams Whipple|Whipple & Black]], 1848]]
In April 1846, Hawthorne was officially appointed the Surveyor for the District of Salem and Beverly and Inspector of the Revenue for the Port of Salem at an annual salary of $1,200.<ref>Miller, 242</ref> He had difficulty writing during this period, as he admitted to Longfellow:

<blockquote>I am trying to resume my pen&nbsp;... Whenever I sit alone, or walk alone, I find myself dreaming about stories, as of old; but these forenoons in the Custom House undo all that the afternoons and evenings have done. I should be happier if I could write.<ref>Miller, 265</ref></blockquote>

This employment, like his earlier appointment to the custom house in Boston, was vulnerable to the politics of the [[spoils system]]. Hawthorne was a Democrat and lost this job due to the change of administration in Washington after the presidential election of 1848. He wrote a letter of protest to the ''Boston Daily Advertiser'', which was attacked by the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] and supported by the Democrats, making Hawthorne's dismissal a much-talked about event in New England.<ref>Cheever, 179</ref> He was deeply affected by the death of his mother in late July, calling it "the darkest hour I ever lived".<ref>Cheever, 180</ref> He was appointed the corresponding secretary of the Salem Lyceum in 1848. Guests who came to speak that season included Emerson, Thoreau, [[Louis Agassiz]], and [[Theodore Parker]].<ref>Miller, 264–265</ref>

Hawthorne returned to writing and published ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' in mid-March 1850,<ref>Miller, 300</ref> including a preface that refers to his three-year tenure in the Custom House and makes several allusions to local politicians—who did not appreciate their treatment.<ref>Mellow, 316</ref> It was one of the first mass-produced books in America, selling 2,500 volumes within ten days and earning Hawthorne $1,500 over 14 years.<ref name=McFarland136>McFarland, 136</ref> The book became a best-seller in the United States<ref>Cheever, 181</ref> and initiated his most lucrative period as a writer.<ref name=McFarland136/> Hawthorne's friend [[Edwin Percy Whipple]] objected to the novel's "morbid intensity" and its dense psychological details, writing that the book "is therefore apt to become, like Hawthorne, too painfully anatomical in his exhibition of them",<ref>Miller, 301–302</ref> while 20th-century writer [[D.&nbsp;H. Lawrence]] said that there could be no more perfect work of the American imagination than ''The Scarlet Letter''.<ref>Miller, 284</ref>

Hawthorne and his family moved to a small red farmhouse near [[Lenox, Massachusetts]], at the end of March 1850.<ref>Miller, 274</ref> He became friends with [[Herman Melville]] beginning on August 5, 1850, when the authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend.<ref>Cheever, 96</ref> Melville had just read Hawthorne's short story collection ''[[Mosses from an Old Manse]]'', and his unsigned review of the collection was printed in ''[[The Literary World (New York City)|The Literary World]]'' on August 17 and August 24 titled "Hawthorne and His Mosses".<ref>Miller, 312</ref> Melville wrote that these stories revealed a dark side to Hawthorne, "shrouded in blackness, ten times black".<ref name=Mellow335>Mellow, 335</ref> He was composing his novel ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' at the time,<ref name=Mellow335/> and dedicated the work in 1851 to Hawthorne: "In token of my admiration for his genius, this book is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne."<ref>Mellow, 382</ref>

Hawthorne's time in the [[Berkshires]] was very productive.<ref name=Wright93>Wright, John Hardy. ''Hawthorne's Haunts in New England''. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2008: 93. {{ISBN|978-1596294257}}</ref> While there, he wrote ''[[The House of the Seven Gables (novel)|The House of the Seven Gables]]'' (1851), which poet and critic [[James Russell Lowell]] said was better than ''The Scarlet Letter'' and called "the most valuable contribution to New England history that has been made."<ref>Mellow, 368–369</ref> He also wrote ''[[The Blithedale Romance]]'' (1852), his only work written in the first person.<ref name="McFarland, 149"/> He also published ''[[A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys]]'' in 1851, a collection of short stories retelling myths that he had been thinking about writing since 1846.<ref>Miller, 345</ref> Nevertheless, poet [[William Ellery Channing (poet)|Ellery Channing]] reported that Hawthorne "has suffered much living in this place".<ref>Wineapple, 241</ref> The family enjoyed the scenery of the Berkshires, although Hawthorne did not enjoy the winters in their small house. They left on November 21, 1851.<ref name=Wright93/> Hawthorne noted, "I am sick to death of Berkshire&nbsp;... I have felt languid and dispirited, during almost my whole residence."<ref>Wineapple, 242</ref>

===The Wayside and Europe===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?179670-1/hawthorne-life ''Booknotes'' interview with Brenda Wineapple on ''Hawthorne: A Life'', January 4, 2004], [[C-SPAN]]}}
In May 1852, the Hawthornes returned to Concord where they lived until July 1853.<ref name="Reynolds, 10"/> In February, they bought The Hillside, a home previously inhabited by [[Amos Bronson Alcott]] and his family, and renamed it [[The Wayside]].<ref>McFarland, 129–130</ref> Their neighbors in Concord included Emerson and [[Henry David Thoreau]].<ref>McFarland, 182</ref> That year, Hawthorne wrote ''The Life of Franklin Pierce'', the campaign biography of his friend, which depicted him as "a man of peaceful pursuits".<ref name=Miller381>Miller, 381</ref> [[Horace Mann]] said, "If he makes out Pierce to be a great man or a brave man, it will be the greatest work of fiction he ever wrote."<ref name=Miller381/> In the biography, Hawthorne depicts Pierce as a statesman and soldier who had accomplished no great feats because of his need to make "little noise" and so "withdrew into the background".<ref>Schreiner, 170–171</ref> He also left out Pierce's drinking habits, despite rumors of his alcoholism,<ref>Mellow, 412</ref> and emphasized Pierce's belief that slavery could not "be remedied by human contrivances" but would, over time, "vanish like a dream".<ref>Miller, 382–383</ref>

[[File:Nathaniel HAWTHORNE 1804-1864 American Author stayed here in 1856.JPG|thumb|upright|Commemorative plaque in [[Blackheath, London]]]]
With Pierce's election as [[List of Presidents of the United States|President]], Hawthorne was rewarded in 1853 with the position of United States [[consul (representative)|consul]] in [[Consulate of the United States in Liverpool|Liverpool]] shortly after the publication of ''[[Tanglewood Tales]]''.<ref>McFarland, 186</ref> The role was considered the most lucrative foreign service position at the time, described by Hawthorne's wife as "second in dignity to the Embassy in London".<ref>Mellow, 415</ref> During this period he and his family lived in the Rock Park estate in [[Rock Ferry]] in one of the houses directly adjacent to Tranmere Beach on the Wirral shore of the River Mersey.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Urquhart|first=Peter|date=Spring 2011|title=Nathaniel Hawthorne's Home in Rock Park|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/nathhawtrevi.37.1.0133|jstor=10.5325/nathhawtrevi.37.1.0133|journal=Nathaniel Hawthorne Review|volume=37|issue=1|pages=133–142|access-date=2020-11-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Shaw|first=George|date=1906|title=Nathaniel Hawthorne's House in Rock Park (Letter dated 1903-11-14 to the Liverpool Mercury)|url=https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/58-9-Shaw.pdf|journal=Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire|volume=58|pages=109–112|access-date=2020-11-09}}</ref> Thus to attend his place of employment at the United States consulate in Liverpool, Hawthorne would have been a regular passenger on the steamboat operated Rock Ferry to Liverpool ferry service departing from the Rock Ferry Slipway at the end of Bedford Road.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1391991|title=Rock Ferry Slipway |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2007-06-04 |website=Historic England |access-date=2020-11-09}}</ref>  His appointment ended in 1857 at the close of the [[Presidency of Franklin Pierce|Pierce administration]]. The Hawthorne family toured France and Italy until 1860. During his time in Italy, the previously clean-shaven Hawthorne grew a bushy mustache.<ref>McFarland, 210</ref>

The family returned to The Wayside in 1860,<ref>McFarland, 206</ref> and that year saw the publication of ''[[The Marble Faun]]'', his first new book in seven years.<ref>Mellow, 520</ref> Hawthorne admitted that he had aged considerably, referring to himself as "wrinkled with time and trouble".<ref>Schreiner, 207</ref>

===Later years and death===
[[File:NHawthorneGrave.jpg|thumb|right|Grave of Nathaniel Hawthorne]]

At the outset of the [[American Civil War]], Hawthorne traveled with [[William D. Ticknor]] to Washington, D.C., where he met [[Abraham Lincoln]] and other notable figures. He wrote about his experiences in the essay "[[Chiefly About War Matters]]" in 1862.

Failing health prevented him from completing several more romance novels. Hawthorne was suffering from pain in his stomach and insisted on a recuperative trip with his friend Franklin Pierce, though his neighbor Bronson Alcott was concerned that Hawthorne was too ill.<ref>Wineapple, 372</ref> While on a tour of the [[White Mountains (New Hampshire)|White Mountains]], he died in his sleep on May 19, 1864, in [[Plymouth, New Hampshire]]. Pierce sent a [[telegram]] to [[Elizabeth Peabody]] asking her to inform Mrs. Hawthorne in person. Mrs. Hawthorne was too saddened by the news to handle the funeral arrangements herself.<ref>Miller, 518</ref> Hawthorne's son Julian, a freshman at [[Harvard College]], learned of his father's death the next day; coincidentally, he was initiated into the [[Delta Kappa Epsilon]] fraternity on the same day by being blindfolded and placed in a coffin.<ref>{{cite web| title= Nathaniel Hawthorne's Untold Tale | url= http://chronicle.com/article/Nathaniel-Hawthornes-Untold/123889 | first= Jack | last=Matthews | date= August 15, 2010 | work= [[The Chronicle of Higher Education|The Chronicle Review]] | access-date=2010-08-17}}</ref> Longfellow wrote a tribute poem to Hawthorne published in 1866 called "[[s:The Bells of Lynn|The Bells of Lynn]]".<ref>Wagenknecht, Edward. ''Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Portrait of an American Humanist''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966: 9.</ref> Hawthorne was buried on what is now known as "Authors' Ridge" in [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord]], [[Massachusetts]].<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 20433–20434). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref> Pallbearers included Longfellow, Emerson, Alcott, [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]], [[James T. Fields]], and [[Edwin Percy Whipple]].<ref>Baker, Carlos. ''Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait''. New York: Viking Press, 1996: 448. {{ISBN|067086675X}}.</ref> Emerson wrote of the funeral: "I thought there was a tragic element in the event, that might be more fully rendered—in the painful solitude of the man, which, I suppose, could no longer be endured, & he died of it."<ref>McFarland, 297</ref>

His wife Sophia and daughter Una were originally buried in England. However, in June 2006, they were reinterred in plots adjacent to Hawthorne.<ref>Mishra, Raja and Sally Heaney. "[http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/01/hawthornes_to_be_reunited/ Hawthornes to be reunited]", ''The Boston Globe''. June 1, 2006. Accessed July 4, 2008</ref>