The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Appendix to Volume XII: Tales, Sketches, and other Papers by Nathaniel Hawthorne with a Biographical Sketch by George Parsons Lathrop: Biographical Sketch of Nathaniel HawthorneLathrop, George Parsons
General
The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Appendix to Volume XII: Tales, Sketches, and other Papers by Nathaniel Hawthorne with a Biographical Sketch by George Parsons Lathrop: Biographical Sketch of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Lathrop, George Parsons
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864; Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
19 May, 1775; = Elizabeth Clarke Manning
adm. gr. to his wid. 19 Apr. 1808; | b. 6 Sept. 1780;
died in Surinam. | died 31 July, 1849.
|
+-----------------+-----------------+------------------+
| | |
Elizabeth Manning | Maria Louisa
born 7 March, 1802; | b. 9 Jan'y, 1808;
died 1 Jan'y, 1883. | lost in the steamer
| Henry Clay, burned
| on the Hudson River
| 27 July, 1852.
|
+NATHANIEL+ b. 4 July, 1804; = Sophia, dau. of Doc. Nathl. Peabody,
d. at Plymouth, N. H. of Salem; b. 21 Sept. 1809; mar. in
19 May, 1864. Boston July, 1842.
Buried at Concord, Mass.
23 May, 1864.
He changed his surname to
Hawthorne.
The founders of the American branch were men of independent character,
proud, active, energetic, capable of extreme sternness and endowed with
passionate natures, no doubt. But they were men of affairs; they touched
the world on the practical side, and, even during the decline of the
family fortunes, continued to do so. All at once, in the personality of
the younger Nathaniel Hawthorne, this energy which persisted in them
reversed its direction, and found a new outlet through the channel of
literary expression. We must suppose that he included among his own
characteristics all those of his predecessors; their innate force, their
endurance, their capacity for impassioned feeling; but in him these
elements were fused by a finer prevailing quality, and held in firm
balance by his rare temperament. This must be borne in mind, if we would
understand the conjunction of opposite traits in him. It was one of his
principles to guard against being run away with by his imagination, and
to cultivate in practical affairs what he called "a morose common
sense." There has been attributed to him by some of those who knew him
a certain good-humored gruffness, which might be explained as a heritage
from the self-assertive vitality of his ancestors. While at Liverpool he
wrote to one of his intimates in this country, and in doing so made
reference to another acquaintance as a "wretch," to be away from whom
made exile endurable. The letter passed into the hands of the
acquaintance thus stigmatized long after Hawthorne was in his grave; but
he declared himself to be in no wise disturbed by it, because he knew
that the remark was not meant seriously, being only one of the
occasional explosions of a "sea-dog" forcefulness, which had come into
the writer's blood from his skipper forefathers. Hawthorne had, in fact,
parted on friendly terms from the gentleman of whom he thus wrote. On
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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