Nataniel Gotorn

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the earliest and most widely recognized masters of American literature. He made a major contribution to the development of the short story (novella) and enriched Romantic literature by introducing elements of allegory and symbolism.

He was born in Salem into the family of a sea captain. His ancestors were zealous Puritans. His father’s early death condemned the Hawthorne family to a poor, secluded existence. Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and afterward returned to Salem, where he lived in seclusion for eleven years, creating his first novellas. From childhood, Hawthorne showed extreme unsociability. Especially in his youth, he felt pangs of conscience over his Puritan forebears, one of whom had passed sentence on the Salem witches. From his earliest works, the theme of guilt for old sins, including the sins of one’s ancestors, occupied a prominent place in his prose.

His first novel was unsuccessful — Fanshawe (1828). His first sketches were published under the title Twice-Told Tales (1837); they were enthusiastically received by H. W. Longfellow and E. A. Poe. Forced by financial difficulties to accept the post of customs inspector (he worked at the Boston and Salem customs houses), Hawthorne continued to write and published in 1841 a collection of children’s stories entitled Grandfather’s Chair. In 1842 he brought together his best novellas on historical and supernatural subjects in the collection Mosses from an Old Manse.

After a brief fascination with transcendentalism, in 1841 he joined Brook Farm, a Fourierist commune whose members sought to combine physical labor with spiritual culture. For several months he worked in the fields, the woods, and the cattle yard, and in the evenings took part in discussions on philosophical and moral themes. But disillusionment soon set in. At the end of 1841 Hawthorne left the community.

In 1850 he published his first novel, The Scarlet Letter, which brought the writer wide recognition in Europe and became a bestseller, although it did not earn him much money. The following year Hawthorne released his second novel, The House of the Seven Gables, which centers on the history of the decline and degeneration of a Salem family. He recounted the story of his disillusion