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Author Biography:

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His father was a sea captain and descendent of John Hathorne, one of the judges in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. He died when the young Nathaniel was four year old. Hawthorne grew up in seclusion with his widowed mother. He was educated at the Bowdoin College in Maine (1821-24). In the school among his friends were Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce, who became the 14th president of the U.S.

Between the years 1825 and 1836 Hawthorne worked as a writer and contributor to periodicals. In 1828 Hawthorne published his first novel, FANSHAWE, anonymously at his own expense. The work was based on his college life. It did not receive much attention and the author burned the unsold copies. However, the book initiated a friendship between Hawthorne and the published Samuel Goodrich. He edited in 1836 the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge in Boston, and compiled in 1837 PETER PARLEY'S UNIVERSAL HISTORY for children. In was followed by a series of books for children - GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR (1841), FAMOUS OLD PEOPLE (1841), LIBERTY TREE (1841), and BIOGRAPHICAL STORIES FOR CHILDREN (1842). More...

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hawthorn.htm (Books and Writers)