Nathaniel Hawthorne

Introduction & Top Questions
Ancestry and early years
First works and the Transcendentalists
The writing of The Scarlet Letter
Leaving Salem and friendship with Melville
Final years and death
Major novels
An analysis of Hawthorne’s strengths as a writer

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

The Old Manse, Nathaniel Hawthorne's former home in Concord, Massachusetts, is a two-story colonial house with pale wood siding, many windows, and surrounded by trees.

Demi Moore as Hester Prynne in the 1995 film The Scarlet Letter, wearing a colonial dress with a red letter A, seated at a table with an open book and a lit candle.

Explore Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story “Dr. Heidegger's Experiment” with Clifton Fadiman

Follow a dramatization of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic American short story “Dr. Heidegger's Experiment”

At a Glance

Nathaniel Hawthorne summary

Quizzes

Book Jacket of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by American children's author illustrator Eric Carle (born 1929)

Classic Children’s Books Quiz

Writers’ Retreats

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) portrait by Carl Van Vecht April 3, 1938. Writer, folklorist and anthropologist celebrated African American culture of the rural South.

American Writers Quiz

Related Questions

How did Brook Farm inspire The Blithedale Romance?
How did Herman Melville respond to Mosses from an Old Manse?
How did Nathaniel Hawthorne change the spelling of his family name?
How did Nathaniel Hawthorne know Franklin Pierce?
How did Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Puritan ancestors influence his writing?
How did Nathaniel Hawthorne’s views differ from Transcendentalism?
How did the death of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s father affect his childhood?
How does Arthur Dimmesdale’s story end in The Scarlet Letter?
How does The Marble Faun explore the Fall of Man?
How does The Scarlet Letter show the influence of Puritan moral rules?
How does the scarlet letter symbolize both shame and human creativity?
How many children did Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody have?
How many stories were included in the 1837 edition of Twice-Told Tales?
How old was Nathaniel Hawthorne when he died?
What did Nathaniel Hawthorne study and practice after graduating from Bowdoin College?
What happened to Nathaniel Hawthorne during his final years?
When and where was Nathaniel Hawthorne born?
When did Nathaniel Hawthorne marry Sophia Peabody?
When was The House of the Seven Gables published?
When was The Scarlet Letter published?
When was “Young Goodman Brown” published?
Where did Nathaniel Hawthorne die?
Where did Nathaniel Hawthorne live while writing stories collected in Mosses from an Old Manse?
Where did Nathaniel Hawthorne spend parts of his teenage years?
Which Hawthorne ancestor punished a Quaker woman with public whipping?
Which college did Nathaniel Hawthorne attend?
Which conflicts between society and individuals are explored in The Scarlet Letter?
Which early Nathaniel Hawthorne stories were published by 1832?
Which famous writers and thinkers lived near Nathaniel Hawthorne in Concord, Massachusetts?
Which government position did Franklin Pierce give Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1853?
Which themes are explored in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories?
Who is Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter?
Who is Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter?
Who is Pearl in The Scarlet Letter?
Why are guilt and original sin important themes in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing?
Why did Nathaniel Hawthorne connect his family’s decline with the actions of his ancestors?
Why did Nathaniel Hawthorne leave Brook Farm after six months?
Why did Nathaniel Hawthorne live at Brook Farm?
Why did Nathaniel Hawthorne try to destroy copies of Fanshawe?
Why did Nathaniel Hawthorne write a campaign biography of Franklin Pierce?
Why did The Scarlet Letter make Nathaniel Hawthorne famous?
Why does Roger Chillingworth torment Arthur Dimmesdale?
Why is Hester Prynne forced to wear the scarlet letter A?
What was Nathaniel Hawthorne’s family like?
Who was F. Scott Fitzgerald?
What did F. Scott Fitzgerald write about?
What is John Steinbeck known for?
What were John Steinbeck’s political views?
What are John Steinbeck’s most famous books?
What is James Baldwin known for?
Where did James Baldwin live?
Why is Sylvia Plath important?
When was Sylvia Plath married?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K

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External Websites

Mustansiriyah University - Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography (PDF)
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Poets.org - Nathaniel Hawthorne
University of Missouri System - American Literatures Prior to 1865 - Author Introduction-Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804Â–1846)
Digital Commons at Colby - The Development of Social Commentary in Nathaniel Hawthorne's
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - The Scarlet Letter and Nathaniel HawthorneÂ’s America
Humanities LibreTexts - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Annenberg Learner - Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
World History Encyclopedia - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
Nathaniel Hawthorne - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne

American writer

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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History

Nathaniel Hawthorne (born July 4, 1804, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.—died May 19, 1864, Plymouth, New Hampshire) is one of the greatest fiction writers of 19th-century American literature. A master of the allegorical and symbolic tale, he remains best known for the novels The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). Hawthorne’s ancestors had lived in Salem, Massachusetts, since the 17th century. His earliest American ancestor was William Hathorne, a magistrate who was...

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