Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

Nathaniel Hawthorne Jr. (July 4th, 1804 - May 19th, 1864) was an American novelist, best known as the author of The Scarlet Letter.

He is also the writer of The House of the Seven Gables and other short stories, as well as being regarded as one of America's greatest authors.

Ancestry
One of Hawthorne's earliest ancestors was William Hathorne, who emigrated from England to America in 1630. He first settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts before moving to Salem in 1636, where he became a judge for the General Court of Massachusetts. Hathorne's son, John Hathorne, was a merchant and judge of the Superior Court, but was best remembered as a judge during the Salem Witch trials. His great-great grandson Nathaniel subsequently changed his surname by adding a "w", mainly to distance himself from his ancestor's shameful connection.

Early life
Nathaniel Hathorne Jr was born on July 4th, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the second child and only son to Captain Nathaniel Hathorne Sr and Elizabeth Clarke. He had two sisters, one older named Elizabeth, and a younger named Maria. In 1808, Captain Hathorne died of yellow fever at sea, leaving Nathaniel and his sisters to be raised by their widowed mother and other relatives.

Hawthorne spent most of his early years in Maine and Salem. When he was 9 years old, he suffered from an injured leg while playing a game of ball that left him temporarily invalid for a year, but he passed the time by being an avid reader and living a quiet life in Raymond, Maine with his mother and sisters.

Education
At the age of 17, Hawthorne enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, with the help of his wealthy uncles. At Bowdoin, Hawthorne's classmates included poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future US president Franklin Pierce, who would both become Hawthorne's friends. At Bowdoin, Hawthorne spent most of his time reading and writing fictional stories, even secluding himself from his peers and doing less studying. He had even interacted with his friends by drinking, gambling, smoking and even violating college rules. He would sometimes have to pay a fine if he was caught, but managed to avoid being suspended. He also received a decent formal education.

While at Bowdoin, Hawthorne had started work on a novel Fanshawe. After graduating from Bowdoin in 1825 and returning to Salem, he finished the rest of the manuscript of Fanshawe. Unable to find a publisher, he ended up publishing the novel himself, but later regretted it and attempted to destroy most of the copies, although some of them have survived.