Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography

He wrote his first novel ‘Fanshawe’ in 1828 but later attempted to suppress it as he felt this work did not match the standard of his later works.

Within five years of his graduation, his writing skills matured and by 1832, he had published some of his finest tales like ‘The Hollow of the Three Hills’, ‘My Kinsman, Major Molineuz’ and ‘Roger Malvin’s Burial’ in various magazines and annuals.

From 1836 to 1839, Hawthorne served as the editor of the ‘American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge’.

In 1837, his first signed book ‘Twice-Told Tales’ came out, which was a collection of all his previously published short stories.

On January 17, 1839, he was appointed as weigher and gauger at the Boston Custom House at a salary of $1,500 a year. Hawthorne served there for a year.

For six months in 1841, Hawthorne stayed at the agricultural cooperative ‘Brook Farm’, in West Roxbury, Mass.

In April 1846, Hawthorne was formally appointed as the "Surveyor for the District of Salem and Beverly and Inspector of the Revenue for the Port of Salem" at a yearly salary of $1,200. Hawthorne lost this job after the presidential election of 1848, due to a change in government.

In 1848, he was appointed as the corresponding secretary of the Salem Lyceum.

His most productive period was his years in Lenox, Massachusetts. He published three successful novels ‘The House of the Seven Gables’ (1851), ‘Blithedale Romance’ (1852) and ‘Tanglewood Tales’ (1853).

During the 1852 presidential election, he wrote a campaign biography of his old friend Franklin Pierce, titled ‘The Life of Franklin Pierce’.

In 1853, Pierce won the Presidential election, and Hawthorne was appointed the United States’ consul in Liverpool, Lancashire.

Hawthorne carried out his consular duties sincerely and effectively till 1857.

After spending a year and a half in Italy, Hawthorne came back to England and produced ‘The Marble Faun’ in 1860.

In 1862, he published the essay ‘Chiefly about War Matters’, based on his visit to Washington D.C, at the outset of the American civil War.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was known to have a strong dislike for social gatherings and often preferred solitude, which may have contributed to the introspective nature of his writing.

Hawthorne once worked as a customs officer at the Salem Custom House, a job he found tedious and uninspiring, leading him to reflect on the hypocrisy and corruption he observed in society.

Despite his reserved nature, Hawthorne had a close friendship with fellow author Herman Melville, and the two writers often discussed their work and shared literary influences.

Hawthorne's ancestors included judges involved in the Salem witch trials, a connection that influenced his interest in themes of guilt, sin, and redemption in his writing.

Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter" was initially criticized for its controversial themes, but it later became a classic of American literature and is still widely studied and admired today.