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Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864

Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864. Born July 4, 1804 to prominent family in Salem, MA Father John a sea captain; descendant of John Harthorn, a judge in Salem witchcraft trials. Heritage of Salem. Father died when Nathaniel was 4 years old Raised in seclusion by his mother

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Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864

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  1. Nathaniel Hawthorne1804-1864 • Born July 4, 1804 to prominent family in Salem, MA • Father John a sea captain; descendant of John Harthorn, a judge in Salem witchcraft trials

  2. Heritage of Salem • Father died when Nathaniel was 4 years old • Raised in seclusion by his mother • His heritage and early childhood experience shaped his lifelong preoccupations

  3. Education • Attended Bowdoin College 1821-24 • Befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce (14th President) • Left school mysteriously 1825; returned to seclusion

  4. Seclusion • Twelve-year period of seclusion • Writings as hidden as he was • Produced many tales published anonymously • Twice Told Tales in 1837 brought him out of obscurity • 1839-41 Took post at Boston Custom House; engaged to Sophia Peabody

  5. Common Themes • Laid out during period of seclusion • Puritan past and its ambiguous, dubious heritage • Human sin and guilt • Dangerous pursuit of perfection • Complexities of isolation • Need for community

  6. Allegorist • Seen by his contemporaries as a moral allegorist • But it is ambiguous allegory, unhinged or unstable • Only seems to offer secure moral teachings • Symbolic, but freed of fixed moral meanings, giving it a modern feel

  7. Transcendentalist Influence • Also became friends in Concord with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott • Later befriended Herman Melville (Moby Dick dedicated to Hawthorne)

  8. Later Life • Franklin Pierce President (1853) • Appointed consul in Liverpool • Lived in Europe for four years • Returned to America in 1860

  9. 1860-1864 • Return to U.S. and impending Civil War • Abhorred war as way of promoting reform • Wanted to protest it • Felt America was losing its innocence • Dies 1864 in Plymouth NH on hiking trip with friend Franklin Pierce

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