Produced by Eric Eldred, Tonya Allen, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team A STUDY OF HAWTHORNE BY GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP. [Illustration] CONTENTS. I. POINT OF VIEW II. SALEM III. BOYHOOD.--COLLEGE DAYS.--FANSHAWE IV. TWILIGHT OF THE TWICE-TOLD TALES V. AT BOSTON AND BROOK FARM VI. THE OLD MANSE VII. THE SCARLET LETTER. VIII. LENOX AND CONCORD: PRODUCTIVE PERIOD IX. ENGLAND AND ITALY X. THE LAST ROMANCE XI. PERSONALITY XII. POE, IRVING, HAWTHORNE XIII. THE Loss AND THE GAIN APPENDIX I. APPENDIX II. APPENDIX III. INDEX A STUDY OF HAWTHORNE. I. POINT OF VIEW. This book was not designed as a biography, but is rather a portrait. And, to speak more carefully still, it is not so much this, as my conception of what a portrait of Hawthorne should be. For I cannot write with the authority of one who had known him and had been formally intrusted with the task of describing his life. On the other hand, I do not enter upon this attempt as a mere literary performance, but have been assisted in it by an inward impulse, a consciousness of sympathy with the subject, which I may perhaps consider a sort of inspiration. My guide has been intuition, confirmed and seldom confuted by research. Perhaps it is even a favoring fact that I should never have seen Mr. Hawthorne; a personality so elusive as his may possibly yield its traits more readily to one who can never obtrude actual intercourse between himself and the mind he is meditating upon. An honest report upon personal contact always has a value denied to the reviews of after-comers, yet the best criticism and biography is not always that of contemporaries. Our first studies will have a biographical scope, because a certain grouping of facts is essential, to give point to the view which I am endeavoring to present; and as Hawthorne's early life has hitherto been but little explored, much of the material used in the earlier chapters is now for the first time made public. The latter portion of the career may be treated more sketchily, being already better known; though passages will be found throughout the essay which have been developed with some fulness, in order to maintain a correct atmosphere, compensating any errors which mere opinions might lead to. Special emphasis, then, must not be held to show neglect of points which my space and scope prevent my commenting on. But the first outline requiring our attention involves a distant retrospect. The history of Hawthorne's genius is in some sense a summary of all New England history.