Nathanial Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

Nathanial Hawthorne was a dark romanticist who wrote about life, love, and the flaws of humans. His life, though short, was pretty exiting. He'd had a variety of jobs ranging from a bookkeeper to an international consul serving in Europe. Not to mention a close friend of the Presidents'. During his riveting life, Hawthorne wrote many works that recieved much praise and opened many eyes. Considered and American icon, his name has always been known to all.
Hawthorne was an American novelist whose most famous works included the renowned Scarlet Letter (which I am reading). Born on July 4th, 1804 in Salem, Masachusetts to Nathanial Hathorne Sr. and Elizabeth Clarke Manning. Though born Nathaniel Hathorne, he later added the 'w' to hide his relation with John Hathorne, the only judge that didn't repent for his involvement in the Salem witch trials of 1692 (Hawthorne

viii). Raised by a single mother, he never met his father, who was a sea-captain, who died of Yellow Fever at sea (Biography 1). After hearing about the death of Nathaniel Hathorne Sr., Elizabeth took her family of four and went to live her parents and later moved into a house owned by her brother in Raymond, Maine (Hawthorne vii). When Hawthorne turns fifeteen years of age, he moves back to Salem to study and work as a bookkeeper in his uncle's stagecoach operation (Hawthorne viii).
Hawthorne atttended Bowdoin College, along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poet), Horatio Bridge (Naval commander), and Franklin Pierce (14th President of the U.S) (Biography 1). Because he didn't have a specific proffesion he wanted to be in, he studied the classics, mathematics, philosophy, composition and natural science (Biography 1). Hawthorne once said, “I do not want to be a doctor and live by men's diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by their quarrels. So, I don't see that there is anything left for me but to be and author." (Biography 1). He graduated eighteenth in a class of 38 in 1825 (Hawthorne viii).
Hawthorne's fist novel, Fanshawe, is published independently in 1825 but Hawthorne does not classify himeself as the author (Hawthorne ix). Seven years later in 1835, he releases Young Goodman Brown, a Puritan tale, that was included in New-England Magazines (Hawthorne xi). In 1837, Twice-Told Tales, one of Hawthornes well-know works, is released and gets much praise from his former classmate Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and even Edgar Allen Poe (Hawthorne ix).
Hawthorne then proposes to Sophia Peabody in 1837, but could not marry immediately due to financial issues. During this four-year engagement, Hawthorne gained employment at the Boston Custom House working as a measurer of salt and coal in 1839 (Hawthorne xi).
Two years later, Hawthorne quits and decides to take part in the Transcendentalist movement's experimental Brook Farm (Biography 1). There, he lived and worked and met many other transcendentalist figures such as Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson who was the leader of the Transcendentalist Movement and a well-known Transcendentalist poet.
Transcendentalism, the idea that people, men and women equally, have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that "transcends" or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel (Transcendentalism 1). For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains(Campbell 1). It began as a reform movement in the Unitarian church and is an important movement in philosophy and literature during the mid-nineteen hundreds (Campbell 1). Transcendentalism doesn't have a specific 'God and more than a religion, it is considered a way of life based on self reliance.
Earning enough money from working at the Brook Farm, Hawthorne finally married Sophia Peabody in Boston after a long engagement lasting four years (Biography 1). The couple then moved into 'The Old Manse', a house owned by the Emerson Family. While living there, Hawthorne continued to write and the house was the inspiration of hawthorne's later work later published Mosses from an Old Manse in 1846 which lead Herman Melville to write a glowing review in 1850 that acknowledged the importance of recognizing guilt, evil and mystery in humanity writing that Hawthorne's dark side was “shrouded in blackness, ten times black." (Biography 1).
On the same year that Hawthorne publishes Mosses of the old Manse, he was appointed surveyor due to the recommendations from his friends in the democratic party to President K. Polk (Hawthorne x). And also on the same year, Hawthorne and Sopia's first born son Julian is born on June 22nd (Hawthorne x). But two years later, when Zachary Taylor is elected into presidency, Hawthorne not only loses his surveyor position but also his mother.
After that year which lacked of luck for Hawthorne, he publishes The Scarlet Letter in 1850, Hawthorne's most famous novel which is considered one of the nation's classics.

Hawthorne then moves to Lenox, Massachusetts where he became friends with Herman Melville who dedicated his popular Moby Dick to the new neighbor in 1851 (Hawthorne x). On May 20 of the same year, Hawthorne's second child, Rose, is born (lol I see what you did there Nate) (Hawthorne x). Another one of Hawthorne's famous works The House of the Seven Gables, is published a year after the release of The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne x).
With all the money Hawthorne made following the release of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, he and his family moved to Concord, Massachusetts where they bought their own home (Hawthorne x). Previously known as Hillside, the Hawthornes renamed it The Wayside after purchase. He also releases three books, The Blithedale Romance, A Wonder Book For Boys and Girls, and The Life of Franklin Pierce (Hawthorne x). Fortunately, Franklin Pierce won the presidential elections that year (Hawthorne

x).
The next year, President Pierce nominates Hawthorne for the position of consul in Liverpool to which the senate approves (Hawthorne x). Hawthorne and his family then move to England, but after a new president is elected, Hawthorne steps down from his position (Hawthorne x). Instead of going back to the U.S, Hawthorne and his family decide to tour Europe and even spend time living in Rome and Florence (Hawthorne xi). A year after in 1859, Hawthorne decides to return to England with his family and he stays there for a year until they return to the U.S in 1860. They returned to The Wayside in Concord and Hawthorne spends his time writting for magazines, writting essays, and even meeting the honest President Abraham Lincoln.
Though Hawthorne was only sixty years of age, his health was deteriorating. Depressed, weary of writing, and failing in health, he died on May 19, 1864, at Plymouth, New Hampshire (Internet Book List 1). He died while on a trip with Franklin Pierce and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetry in Concord (Hawthorne xi). But, even in his short life, he did a lot and inspired many. Considered one of the most influential American writers along Mark Twain and Emily Dickenson, Hawthorne's accomplishments will not be forgotten (Curtis 1).