Editing Nathaniel Hawthorne (section)

===Critical reception===
Hawthorne's writings were well received at the time. Contemporary response praised his sentimentality and moral purity while more modern evaluations focus on the dark psychological complexity.<ref>Person, Leland S. "Bibliographical Essay: Hawthorne and History", collected in ''A Historical Guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne''. Oxford University Press, 2001: 187. {{ISBN|0195124146}}.</ref> Herman Melville wrote a passionate review of ''Mosses from an Old Manse'', titled "[[Hawthorne and His Mosses]]", arguing that Hawthorne "is one of the new, and far better generation of your writers." Melville describes an affinity for Hawthorne that would only increase: "I feel that this Hawthorne has dropped germinous seeds into my soul. He expands and deepens down, the more I contemplate him; and further, and further, shoots his strong New-England roots into the hot soil of my Southern soul."<ref>"[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hawthorne_and_His_Mosses Hawthorne and His Mosses]" [[The Literary World (New York City)|The Literary World]] August  1850.</ref> [[Edgar Allan Poe]] wrote important reviews of both ''Twice-Told Tales'' and ''Mosses from an Old Manse''. Poe's assessment was partly informed by his contempt for allegory and moral tales, and his chronic accusations of plagiarism, though he admitted:
<blockquote>The style of Mr. Hawthorne is purity itself. His tone is singularly effective—wild, plaintive, thoughtful, and in full accordance with his themes&nbsp;... We look upon him as one of the few men of indisputable genius to whom our country has as yet given birth.<ref>McFarland, 88–89</ref></blockquote> [[John Neal]]'s magazine ''[[The Yankee]]'' published the first substantial public praise of Hawthorne, saying in 1828 that the author of ''Fanshawe'' has a "fair prospect of future success."<ref>{{Cite book | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn = 0226469697 | last = Lease | first = Benjamin | title = That Wild Fellow John Neal and the American Literary Revolution | location = Chicago | year = 1972 | pages = 129, 133}}</ref> [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] wrote, "Nathaniel Hawthorne's reputation as a writer is a very pleasing fact, because his writing is not good for anything, and this is a tribute to the man."<ref>Nelson, Randy F. (editor). ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 150. {{ISBN|086576008X}}.</ref> [[Henry James]] praised Hawthorne, saying, "The fine thing in Hawthorne is that he cared for the deeper psychology, and that, in his way, he tried to become familiar with it."<ref>Porte, 97</ref> Poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] wrote that he admired the "weird and subtle beauty" in Hawthorne's tales.<ref>Woodwell, Roland H. ''John Greenleaf Whittier: A Biography''. Haverhill, Massachusetts: Trustees of the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead, 1985: 293.</ref> [[Evert Augustus Duyckinck]] said of Hawthorne, "Of the American writers destined to live, he is the most original, the one least indebted to foreign models or literary precedents of any kind."<ref>McFarland, 88</ref>

Beginning in the 1950s, critics have focused on symbolism and didacticism.<ref>Crews, 4</ref>

The critic [[Harold Bloom]] wrote that only Henry James and [[William Faulkner]] challenge Hawthorne's position as the greatest American novelist, although he admitted that he favored James as the greatest American novelist.<ref>''Nathaniel Hawthorne'' by Harold Bloom (2000) p. 9<!-- is this: ''Nathaniel Hawthorne (Bloom's Classic Critical Views)'' https://www.amazon.com/Nathaniel-Hawthorne-Classic-Critical-Hardcover/dp/B00E86IPQS ... is this: ''Nathaniel Hawthorne'' isbn=978-0791052532 http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Nathaniel-Hawthorne/Harold-Bloom-Ed/9780791052532?id=6189791745486 ? --></ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Nathaniel Hawthorne by Harold Bloom p. xii <!-- see comment above which book is this? --></ref> Bloom saw Hawthorne's greatest works to be principally ''The Scarlet Letter'', followed by ''The Marble Faun'' and certain short stories, including "My Kinsman, Major Molineux", "Young Goodman Brown", "Wakefield", and "Feathertop".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>