Nathaniel Hawthorne  (1804 – 1864)

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on Independence Day (July 4^th), 1804. He alludes in “Custom-House” to his ancestor, Major William Hathorne (1607-1681), the first member of the family to arrive in Massachusetts, from England in 1630. His father, who was a sea-captain, preserved the spelling Hathorne. Nathaniel added the “w”. His father died in 1808,  leaving his wife and children financially dependent upon her family.In 1821 Nathaniel Hawthorne, became a student at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. On graduation, in 1825, he returned to Salem.

In 1836, he moved to Boston, where he worked as a magazine editor. In 1839 he took up a post in the Boston Custom House. He resigned from that at the beginning of 1841, and returned to Salem.In April 1841, he joined the Book Farm communitarian experiment. He left after eight months, but his experiences there provided the basis for The Blithedale Romance (1852).In 1842, he married Sophia Peabody, and the couple moved  to the Old Manse, in Concord,Massachusetts. They had three children: Una, born in 1844; Julian, in 1846; and Rose, in 1851.Nathaniel Hawthorne struggled to support his family, but in 1846, he was appointed Surveyor at salem Custom House, where he remained until 1849, when a change in the presidency resulted in loss of office. In 1850, he met the writer Herman Melville, who became one of his closest friends.In 1853, he travelled to England as American consul, based in Liverpool and Manchester. He journeyed through France and Italy before returning to the United States in 1860. He died in 1864.