Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem Massachusetts. Nathaniel is the only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Hawthorne. His father, a sea captain, perished in 1808 out at sea due to yellow fever. The family was left with very poor financial support which led Elizabeth to move in with her affluent brothers. While Nathaniel was at an early age, he sustained a leg injury that left him immobile for several months. During that time, he acquired a voracious inclination for reading and set his sights on becoming a writer. Fortunately, with the aid of his wealthy uncles, Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College from 1821 to 1825. He missed his family very much during this time, so after graduation, he returned home for a twelve-year stay. Throughout this time, he published a few works of his own. Among them were The Hollow of the Three Hills and An Old Woman’s Tale. By 1832, he had written My Kinsman, Major Molineux , and Roger Malvin’s Burial. These provided him with notoriety, but did not bring a sustainable income; For a time, he
…show more content…
When he wrote The Scarlet Letter in 1850, he created a book that spread at an alarming rate. He became a mass communicator using his writing talent and his high education. The Scarlet Letter was so successful due to a number of reasons: America was a new country, so a book like this was unique compared to the English writings being shipped overseas. Another reason is that the topic of the story was still very controversial at the time. Puritan values started to decrease around 1850 (the same year this book was released) but that was not enough to make this novel welcome. It was also a career-threatening decision to base a novel on such an adulterous affair. This is a major barrier and a very large obstacle to tackle. To be able to write about such a sensitive topic at a vulnerable time. Despite the odds and risks, he published this book gambling his life at
When he wrote The Scarlet Letter in 1850, he created a book that spread at an alarming rate. He became a mass communicator using his writing talent and his high education. The Scarlet Letter was so successful due to a number of reasons: America was a new country, so a book like this was unique compared to the English writings being shipped overseas. Another reason is that the topic of the story was still very controversial at the time. Puritan values started to decrease around 1850 (the same year this book was released) but that was not enough to make this novel welcome. It was also a career-threatening decision to base a novel on such an adulterous affair. This is a major barrier and a very large obstacle to tackle. To be able to write about such a sensitive topic at a vulnerable time. Despite the odds and risks, he published this book gambling his life at