Within a relatively small body of work, Nathaniel Hawthorne experimented with different forms and techniques of writing. He was self-taught and self-inspired. Hawthorne's works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin and punishment. He created symbolic fiction through his shadowy and unreal characters. But Hawthorne's best characters revealed the sense of guilt he felt about the roles of his ancestors in the seventeenth century persecution of Quakers and witchcraft trials in Salem. In the true renaissance spirit, Nathaniel Hawthorne became one of the greatest writers in America-- perhaps in the world.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town of storytellers. He was the only son of a sea captain, one of a family of true hearted, New England Puritans. Hawthorne spent some of his time with a private tutor. …
