Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804–1864)
US writer. He was the author of American literature's first great classic novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850). Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, it tells the powerful allegorical story of a ‘fallen woman’ and her daughter who are judged guilty according to men's, not nature's, laws. He wrote three other novels, including The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and many short stories, a form he was instrumental in developing, including Tanglewood Tales (1853), classic Greek legends retold for children.
Hawthorne's fiction is marked by its haunting symbolism and its exploration of guilt, sin, and other complex moral and psychological issues. It had a profound effect on writers of his own time, notably his friend Herman Melville, and continues to influence writers.
| Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin College and worked as a customs official. He was the US consul 1853–57 in Liverpool, England, and then lived in Italy until 1860. |
| His other novels are The Blithedale Romance (1852) and The Marble Faun (1860), and his short stories include ‘My Kinsman, Major Molineux’ and ‘Young Goodman Brown’. |
