Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne, by George
E. Woodberry

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Title: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Author: George E. Woodberry
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NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
BY
GEORGE E. WOODBERRY

PREFACE
The narrative of Hawthorne's life has been partly told in the
autobiographical passages of his writings which he himself addressed
to his readers from time to time, and in the series of "Note Books," not
meant for publication but included in his posthumous works; the
remainder is chiefly contained in the family biography, "Nathaniel
Hawthorne and his Wife" by his son Julian Hawthorne, "Memories of
Hawthorne" by his daughter, Mrs. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, and "A
Study of Hawthorne," by his son-in-law, George Parsons Lathrop.
Collateral material is also to be found abundantly in books of
reminiscences by his contemporaries. These are the printed sources of
the present biography.

The author takes pleasure in expressing his thanks to his publishers for
the ample material they have placed at his disposal; and also to Messrs.
Harper and Brothers for their permission to make extracts from Horatio
Bridge's "Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne," and to
Samuel T. Pickard, Esq., author of "Hawthorne's First Diary," and to Dr.
Moncure D. Conway, author of "Nathaniel Hawthorne" (Appleton's),
for a like courtesy.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE, April 1, 1902.

CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. FIRST YEARS
II. THE CHAMBER UNDER THE EAVES
III. WEIGHER, GAUGER, AND FARMER
IV. THE OLD MANSE
V. THE SCARLET LETTER
VI. LITERARY LABORS
VII. LIFE ABROAD
VIII. LAST YEARS

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
* * * * *

I.

FIRST YEARS.
The Hathorne family stock, to name it with the ancient spelling, was
English, and its old home is said to have been at Wigeastle, Wilton, in
Wiltshire. The emigrant planter, William Hathorne, twenty-three years
old, came over in the Arbella with Winthrop in 1630. He settled at
Dorchster, but in 1637 removed to Salem, where he received grants of
land; and there the line continued generation after generation with
varying fortune, at one time coming into public service and local
distinction, and at another lapsing again into the common lot, as was
the case of the long settled families generally. The planter, William
Hathorne, shared to the full in the vigor and enterprise of the first
generation in New England. He was a leader in war and peace, trade
and politics, with the versatility then required for leadership, being
legislator, magistrate, Indian fighter, explorer, and promoter, as well as
occasionally a preacher; and besides this practical force he had a
temper to sway and incite, which made him reputed the most eloquent
man in the public assembly. He possessed--and this may indicate
another side to his character--a copy of Sir Philip Sidney's "Arcadia,"
certainly a rare book in the wilderness. He was best remembered, both
in local annals and family tradition, as a patriot and a persecutor, for he
refused to obey the king's summons to England, and he ordered Quaker
women to be whipped through the country-side.
The next generation, born in the colony, were generally of a narrower
type than their fathers, though in their turn they took up the work of the
new and making world with force and conscience; and the second
Hathorne, John, of fanatical memory, was as characteristically a
latter-day Puritan as his father had been a pioneer. He served in the
council and the field, but he left a name chiefly as a magistrate. His
duty as judge fell in the witchcraft years, and under that adversity of
fortune he showed those qualities of the Puritan temperament which are
most darkly recalled; he examined and sentenced to death several of the
accused persons, and bore