Hawthorne's History

From 1850s

[edit] A Timeline

07/04/1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors, including John Hathorne, a presiding magistrate in the Salem witch trials

Approx 1808 Father lost at sea

1828 Hawthorne`s first novel, FANSHAWE, appeared anonymously at his own expense

1836 He edited the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge in Boston

1837 compiled PETER PARLEY`S UNIVERSAL HISTORY for children.

1837 The second, expanded edition of TWICE TOLD TALES, was praised by Edgar Allan Poe in Graham`s Magazine.

1839 insufficient earnings as a writer forced Hawthorne to enter a career as a Boston Custom House measurer.

1841 GRANDFATHER`S CHAIR

1841 FAMOUS OLD PEOPLE

1841 LIBERTY TREE

1842 His writing finally amassed Hawthorne a sufficient income for him to marry Sophia Peabody and move to The Manse in Concord, which was at that time the center of the Transcendental movement

1842 BIOGRAPHICAL STORIES FOR CHILDREN

1842 Hawthorne became friends with the Transcendentalists in Concord, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who also drew on the Puritan legacy

1845 returned to Salem, where he was appointed surveyor of the Boston Custom House by President James Polk

1846 Once again, Hawthorne was unable to earn a living as a writer and in 1846 he was appointed surveyor of the Port of Salem

1850 THE SCARLET LETTER

1851 THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES

1851 THE SNOW IMAGE

1852 THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE

1860 THE MARBLE FAUN

1863 OUR OLD HOME

1864 Hawthorne passed away on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire after a long period of illness in which he suffered severe bouts of dementia

http://mostweb.cc/Hawthorne/ Accessed 03/04/08

[edit] Other Interesting Facts

His family descended from the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; among his forebears was John Hathorne (Hawthorne added the “w” to his name when he began to write), one of the judges at the 1692 Salem witch trials.