The Life and Genius of Nathaniel HawthorneStearns, Frank Preston
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The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Stearns, Frank Preston
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864; Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Biography
But Daniel Hathorne had the advantage over fashionable society in Salem,
in being a thorough patriot. Boston and Salem were the two strongholds
of Toryism during the war for Independence, which was natural enough, as
their wealthy citizens were in close mercantile relations with English
houses, and sent their children to England to be educated. Daniel
Hathorne, however, as soon as hostilities had begun, fitted out his
bark as a privateer, and spent the following six years in preying upon
British merchantmen. How successful he was in this line of business
we have not been informed, but he certainly did not grow rich by it;
although he is credited with one engagement with the enemy, in which his
ship came off with honor, though perhaps not with a decisive victory.
This exploit was celebrated in a rude ballad of the time, which has been
preserved in “Griswold’s Curiosities of American Literature,” and has
at least the merit of plain unvarnished language. [Footnote: Also in
Lathrop’s “Hawthorne.”]
There is a miniature portrait of Daniel Hathorne, such as was common in
Copley’s time, still in the possession of the Hawthorne family, and
it represents him as rather a bullet-headed man, with a bright, open,
cheery face, a broad English chin and strongly marked brows,--an
excellent physiognomy for a sea-captain. He appears besides to have had
light brown or sandy hair, a ruddy complexion and bright blue eyes;
but we cannot determine how truthful the miniature may be in respect
to coloring. At all events, he was of a very different appearance from
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and if he resembled his grandson in any external
respect, it was in his large eyes and their overshadowing brows. He has
not the look of a dare-devil. One might suppose that he was a person of
rather an obstinate disposition, but it is always difficult to draw the
line between obstinacy and determination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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