Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. His family descended from some of the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hawthorne was raised by his widowed mother, later in his life he attended Bowdoin College in Maine. It was at this college that he met two people who had a great impact upon his life: Franklin Pierce, who later became president of the United States, and Henry Wadsoworth Longfellow, who later became a famous poet.
Hawthorne began writing after he completed college. He wrote the novel 'Fanshawe' in which gave details about his college experiences. He was also an editor and a custom surveyor during this period of time. As he became involved in a circle of intellectuals he abandoned his customs post in order to take part in a utopian experiment that involved creating a commune designed to promote economic self-sufficiency as well as transcentalist principles. Transcentalist principles were those of religious and philosophical movements that are dedicated to the belief that divinity manifests itself everywhere. Included in these tanscentalist principles is the idea that personalized and direct relationships with the divine would take place instead of the traditional structured religions. The idea of personal and direct relationships with the divine is prevalent in The Scarlet Letter.
Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody, a fellow Transcendentalist, in 1842. He then moved to Old Manse where he published 'Mosses from an Old Manse', which was a collection of essays and stories mostly about early America. This book earned Hawthorne the attention of literary establishment because it displayed a stylistic freshness and interest in American subject matter during a time when America was trying to establish a cultural independence. Some even considered Hawthorne to be the "American Shakespeare".
In 1845 Hawthorne went to a post in Salem to work as a customs surveyor, however after losing this job he published The Scarlet Letter. The other major novels her wrote include: The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860).
In 1853 Franklin Pierce, a college friend of Hawthorne, for whom he had written a campaign biography and who had since become president, appointed Hawthorne a United States consul.
Hawthorne spent the next six years in Europe and died in 1864 a few years after he returned to America.
Hawthorne used the America's Puritans Past as the subject of the majority of his work. His book 'The Scarlet Letter' uses the material to its greatest effect. The Puritans were religious reformers who arrived, under the leadership of John Winthrop, in Massachusetts in the 1630s. The religious group was intolerant of dissenting ideas and lifestyles. Hawthorne uses the repressive, authoritarian Puritan society as an analogue for humankind in general in his book 'The Scarlet Letter'.
Hawthorne speaks specifically about American issues, it is Hawthorns universality and dramatic flair that have ensured his place in the literary world.
