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Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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Nathanial Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His family name was Hathorne. He wanted his name to be different, so he added a “w”
Hawthorne used his Puritanism legacy in the novels he wrote, such as The Scarlet Letter. This was his most well known novel. He was an American writer. He was married and his wife was named Sophia. They lived a reclusive life.

At the young age of four, Hawthorne’s father died of yellow fever in 1808. He was a sea captain. His mother raised him alone. His uncle, Robert Manning, helped financially with his college education. He attended Bowden College. At the age of seventeen, he quotes his vocation, “I do not want to be a doctor and live by men’s diseases, nor a …show more content…

One friend was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He studied classics during college, such as, Math, Philosophy, Composition and Natural Science. He graduated in 1825. After graduation he spent time at his moms home in Salem. He also spent a lot of time at the local library. He wrote many short stories. He failed on his first try to get a collection published. In 1828 he published his first novel anonymously. It was called Fanshawe and did not receive much attention. A schoolmate by the name of Horatio Bridge convinced him to publish his short stories in his own name. Horatio also put up money to guarantee any losses with the publisher. The publishers name was Samual G. Goodrich.Twice-Told Tales was a success and was published in 1837. In 1842 he reissued an edition of Twice-Told …show more content…

They fell in love and were later married in 1842 in Boston at her parents home. They moved to Concord, MA and rented from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Hawthorne continued to write short stories. He joined the Transcendental movement. In 1846 he published Mosses from and Old Manse. Herman Melville wrote a glowing review in 1850 and acknowledged the importance of recognizing guilt, evil and mystery in humanity. The couple moved back to Salem in 1845 to live with his mom. He accepted a position of secretary of the Salem Lyceum. When Zachary Taylor won the presidency, Hawthorne lost his job.

The following year his mother passed away. He was cleaning out the attic and found a worn letter “A”. This gave him the inspiration to write his most famous novel, The Scarlett Letter. It was one of the first massed produced books in the United States and released in 1850. Hawthorne and his wife moved into a farmhouse in Lenox, MA. He went on to write The House of Seven Gables. Rural life did not work for him, as he enjoyed being close to the sea and the city. Therefore, he moved his family back to Concord. He and Sophia now had three children. They lived in a place called Wayside.
While living where he joined the Romantic Movement and wrote, The Blithedale Romance. He also wrote children’s stories based on Greek

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