American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804, to May 19, 1864) wrote both novels and short stories. His works typically touch on history, religion, and morality. His family had a lengthy history in Salem, Massachusetts, where he was born in 1804. Hawthorne enrolled at Bowdoin College in 1821, was chosen for membership in Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and received his diploma in 1825. Fanshawe, his debut novel, was published in 1828; he later tried to suppress it because he believed it fell short of the caliber of his later works. In magazines, he produced a number of short stories, which he later compiled as Twice-Told Tales in 1837. He proposed to Sophia Peabody the next year. Before getting married to Peabody in 1842, he joined the transcendentalist community of Brook Farm and worked at the Boston Custom House. The pair first settled in Concord, Massachusetts' The Old Manse before relocating to Salem, the Berkshires, and finally The Wayside. Following the release of The Scarlet Letter in 1850, a number of other novels followed. Prior to their 1860 return to Concord, Hawthorne and his family traveled to Europe as part of a political appointment as a consul. He passed away on May 19, 1864.

The Portable HawthorneIntroduction
Chronology

I. The Tales (1830-1852)

Editor's Note
My Kinsman, Mayor Molineux
Roger Malvin's Burial
Young Goodman Brown
The Minister's Black Veil
The Man of Adamant
The Birth-Mark
Rappaccini's Daughter
Prefaces
from "The Old Manse"
to Twice-told Tales
to The Snow-Image

II. The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Editor's Note

III. The Published Romances (1851-1860)

Editor's Note
from The House of the Seven Gables
from The Blithedale Romance
from The Marble Faun

IV. The European Journals (1853-1860)

Editor's Note
from the English, French, and Italian Journals

V. The Last Years (1861-1864)

Editor's Note
Passages from the letters and the Unfinished Romances

Suggestions for Further Reading