How did the death of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s father affect his childhood?

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A son of Salem — Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors in Salem, Massachusetts, were Puritans named Hathorne. He added a w to his name when he began writing.

The death of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s father, a ship’s captain, occurred when Hawthorne was four years old. This event left his mother without the financial means to support him and his two sisters, forcing the family to move in with her affluent brothers, the Mannings. Consequently, Hawthorne grew up in his uncles' household in Salem and spent significant periods of his teenage years living in Raymond, Maine, near Sebago Lake.1