Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Great American Writer .
Nathaniel Hawthorne, born on the fourth of July in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, is one of the greatest American writers. He contributed to American literature until his death in May of 1864. Among his literary accomplishments were: The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance. Hawthorne received his education alongside many great men at Bowdoin College. .
In 1821, while attending Bowdoin College, Hawthorne began writing his first literary piece, The Fanshawe. He completed it in 1828 and published it anonymously. Hawthorne graduated from college in 1825. Among his classmates were Henry W. Longfellow and Franklin Pierce. Pierce and Hawthorne stayed close friends throughout their lives. Pierce was with Hawthorne when he died of severe gastrointestinal cancer. .
Before Hawthorne's death in 1864 he accomplished much. He completed a second work, Twice-Told Tales, in 1837, the same year he met his future wife, Sophia Peabody. The two were secretly engaged and remained so until their marriage in 1842. Sophia and Nathaniel began a family of there own. They had three children: Una, Julian, and Rose. .
In 1839, Hawthorne took a job to support himself. He began at the Boston Custom House in January of that year. Hawthorne continued at the Custom House until he became Surveyor for the District of Salem. Hawthorne was employed as the Surveyor from 1846 until he was dismissed in 1849 do to political reasons. In the years between his surveyor position and his American consul position in Liverpool, Hawthorne wrote three more major novels. At the age of the forty-four he wrote The Scarlet Letter. He followed it with The House of Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852). Hawthorne and his family moved to England where they stayed until he retired in 1860. Hawthorne continued to write while in England. He completed his final novel in 1860.