American novelist and short-story author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) drew inspiration from colonial New England for his best-known work, The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). Both of them questioned morality and character, subjects that Hawthorne’s Transcendentalist colleagues Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were studying in their philosophical writings. These are the 12 things about the person who was that was said to be ” handsomer than Lord Byron.”nathaniel hawthorne facts for 2022.
1. Nathaniel Hawthorne was related to an important prosecutor during the Salem Witch Trials …
Hawthorne was born July 4 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, was the great-grandson of Judge John H. Hathorne, one among the more determined prosecutor in Salem’s witchcraft trials. Hathorne was a key figure in the crusade to hang 20 suspected witches in 1692. This wasn’t the only connection Hawthorne had with her involvement with the Salem Witch Trials An accuser was also named Sarah Phelps was the great niece of Hawthorne’s maternal great-grandfather.
The inspiration behind Hawthorne’s sequel, the House of the Seven Gables was derived from this family’s story. In the novel characters from the Pyncheon family reside in a mansion based on the actual Turner-Ingersoll house in Salem that Hawthorne went to following the time his firstsecond cousin Susanna Ingersoll acquired it.
2. And also to some of the witches accused.
Hawthorne’s great-uncles got married two daughters from Mary as well as Philip English, a prosperous couple that had been each accuse of witchcraft but were not punished.
Hawthorne’s cousin from another lineage got married to the great-great-great grandson of John Proctor, the first person to be accused of witchcraft. Proctor died on the 19th of August 1692. Another one of the acquitted “witch,” Sarah Wilson was married to an ancestor of Hawthorne’s maternal grandmother.
3. Hawthorne added Hawthorne added the to his last name.
Hawthorne added the extra letter to his surname, perhaps to distinguish himself from some of his ancestors–including Judge Hathorne and his great-great-grandfather, William Hathorne, a magistrate who sentenced a Quaker woman to a brutal public flogging. There is no explanation for the reason Hawthorne did this, but.
4. He attempted to ruin the first book he wrote.
Hawthorne anonymously anonymouslyself-published in his debut novel Fanshawe Fanshawe, which was a Gothic romantic novel, in 1828, while studying in Bowdoin College in Maine. He regretted his choice soon after (perhaps because the book was criticized for its poor quality) and attempted to destroy every copy. According to reports, his wife did not realize the existence of the book until after his death.
5. Hawthorne was a classmate in college of a potential U.S. president.
Hawthorne had a meeting with Franklin Pierce while both were of Bowdoin College in the 1820s and they remained close friends. When Pierce was awarded his Democratic presidential nomination in 1852 Hawthorne composed his biography for the campaign. At the time, Hawthorne had achieved fame and acclaim in the works his novels, The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables but he was slammed for his biography of Pierce. The author claimed his work as the anti-abolitionist’s candidate resulted in the loss of ” hundreds of friends” in the North.
In 1853, when Pierce became president of the United States in 1853 Pierce rewarded the president by offering Hawthorne an extremely lucrative job for the post of U.S. consul to Liverpool, UK, a sinecure which made it more convenient for Hawthorne to devote time to writing. His family and he resided in England between 1853 and 1857.
6. He put aside money to pay for his wedding by living in an apartment.
Hawthorne was introduced to Sophia Peabody in 1838 while she was supposedly in the process of courting her sister, Elizabeth. Hawthorne was a member of the Peabodys were a well-connected with a scholarly Salem family. Elizabeth was part of the Transcendentalist group (it was her who believed that Hawthorne was prettier that Lord Byron) as did the other sister, Mary she was an educator and was married to the reformer Horace Mann. Sophia was nearing thirty and had informed the sister she was not looking for a man. She and Hawthorne struck up a friendship but were married in 1839.
Hawthorne was an unemployed writer, was close to breaking and was forced to move to the Transcendentalist community of Brook Farm in April 1841, thinking he could save money. The 175-acre farm just outside Boston was an experiment in utopian community and Hawthorne was considered to be one of the founders. However, he was not a fan of the commune and farming, and particularly his work of shoveling manure up a hill known as “the gold mine” and then resigned after just six months.
7. Hawthorne along with his wife inscribed poems in the windows of their first home.
Hawthorne as well as Sophia Peabody married on July 9th, 1842 at the Elizabeth Peabody’s Transcendentalist bookstore in Boston The couple then relocated to the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, a two-and-a-half-story clapboard home constructed in the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s father. Henry David Thoreau planted an garden that was heirloom to the couple. Emerson provided them with money during throughout the initial years of their marriage.This is one of nathaniel hawthorne facts.
The couple stayed at The Old Manse for three years and created poems to each other on the windows, which remain visible to this day. Sophia made her name into the glass along with the ring she got for her engagement.
8. A ghost was seen in The Boston Athenaeum.
When he lived within Boston, Hawthorne often visited the reading room of The Boston Athenaeum, an elegant subscription library. On April 18, 1842, Hawthorne noticed the elderly Reverend Thaddeus Mason Harris sitting at his usual place near the fireplace and was studying the Boston Post. The following night, he was shocked to hear from a trusted friend that Harris was dead..
In the story he recounted afterward, Hawthorne said he was unsure if he actually observed Harris earlier in the day, but after entering the reading room later that day, Harris was once again sitting in the same seat and was reading the same newspaper (Hawthorne said that Harris might be reading his own death obituary). Hawthorne said he had observed Harris in a number of subsequent visits.
9. Herman Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne.
In the days following the Scarlet Letter‘s publication, Hawthorne resided within Lenox in the beautiful Berkshires in western Massachusetts. He hung out with and befriended Herman Melville, who resided with his family in Pittsfield. Melville was a famous writer of novellas about adventure was close to with Moby-Dick the more complicated and darker story, but the author missed his deadline by a year , forcing him to revise the novel following Hawthorne’s suggestions. Melville committed the novel to Hawthorne and wrote an glowing letter of gratitude to the mentor (among numerous different romantic correspondences).
10. Franklin Pierce discovered Hawthorne’s body.
Hawthorne’s condition had taken an adverse turn in the year 1859. He returned his family to America after their “HTM0_life” in Englandlife living in England along with an extended trip to Italy–and wrote the final book of his, The Marble Faun.
In 1864 Hawthorne made a visit to the White Mountains with Pierce, who lived at Concord, New Hampshire, hoping to regain some health. In May 1864, the pair went to Dixville Notch and stopped at the Pemigewasset Hotel for the night. The hotel was where Pierce looked over his friend at the end late in the night and discovered that Hawthorne had died. Hawthorne was 59.nathaniel hawthorne facts .