Author+Biography

= Author Biography= = = Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His father was a sea captain and was a descendant of John Hawthorne, a judge who presided over the Salem witch trials. When Hawthorne was four years old, his father died at sea, and he lived a secluded life with his mother.

Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine. In 1842 he married the illustrator Sophia Peabody, who was a great champion of his writing. They had three children. When he wrote // The Scarlet Letter //, he worked feverishly at all hours, and he referred to it as “the hell-fired story.” When he finished it on February 3, 1850, he read the final pages to his wife. He wrote, "It broke her heart and sent her to bed with a grievous headache, which I look upon as a triumphant success."

The success of // The Scarlet Letter // enabled Hawthorne to devote himself to writing full-time. He went on to write // The House of the Seven Gables // in 1851. His subsequent novels were considered disappointments. He had few social attachments, and he died in 1864 after a long illness.

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[|Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography]