His first novel, Fanshawe (1829), published anonymously, was unsuccessful. His short stories won notice and were collected in Twice-Told Tales (1837; second series, 1842). He did not share the optimism and idealism of the transcendentalist participants (see transcendentalism), and he did not feel himself suited to communal life. In Concord, there he wrote the tales and sketches in the collection Mosses from an Old Manse (1846).
He began writing his masterpiece in 1850, The Scarlet Letter. It is often considered the first American psychological novel. Hawthorne's next novel, The House of the Seven Gables (1851), takes place in the New England of his own period but nevertheless also deals with the effects of Puritanism.
Near Lenox, Mass., he wrote A Wonder Book (1852), based on Greek mythology, which became a juvenile classic, and Tanglewood Tales (1853), also for children. At this time he befriended his neighbor Herman Melville, who was one of the first to appreciate Hawthorne's genius. Hawthorne completed The Blithedale Romance (1852), a novel based on his Brook Farm experience.
He wrote the The Marble Faun (1860) as a result of visiting Italy. He died during a trip to the White Mts. with Franklin Pierce.
Aside from his importance as a novelist, Hawthorne is justly celebrated as a short-story writer. He helped to establish the American short story as a significant art form with his haunting tales of human loneliness, frustration, hypocrisy, eccentricity, and frailty. Among his most brilliant stories are "The Minister's Black Veil," "Roger Malvin's Burial," "Young Goodman Brown," "Rappaccini's Daughter," "The Great Stone Face," and "Ethan Brand.".
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is considered by many to be the greatest ccomplishment of an author hailed as the master of the American short story. It is set in Salem, Massachusetts. In this strictly controlled Puritan town the inhabitants live by harsh laws and fierce prejudices.
