Author guide

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer associated with the Romantic movement. His fiction often explores New England history, Puritanism, moral guilt, and the divided self. After graduating from Bowdoin College, he changed the spelling of his surname from Hathorne to Hawthorne. He published his first novel, Fanshawe, anonymously in 1828; later works include The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance. He married Sophia Peabody in 1842, lived in Concord and Salem, and spent several years in Europe after a political appointment.