WRITER

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804 - 1864

Photo of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Icon of person Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that town. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Nathaniel Hawthorne has received more than 4,827,795 page views. His biography is available in 79 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 77 in 2019). Nathaniel Hawthorne is the 535th most popular writer (down from 475th in 2019), the 548th most popular biography from United States (down from 480th in 2019) and the 52nd most popular American Writer.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is most famous for his novel, The Scarlet Letter.

Memorability Metrics

  • 4.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 66.33

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 79

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.48

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 6.05

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The Scarlet Letter
Young adult fiction, Fiction, Interpersonal relations
"Thou and thine, Hester Prynne, belong to me." With these chilling words a husband claims his wife after a two-year absence. But the child she clutches is not his, and Hester wears a scarlet "A" upon her breast, the sign of adultery visible to all. Under an assumed name, her husband begins his vindictive search for her lover, determined to expose what Hester is equally determined to protect. Defiant and proud, Hester witnesses the degradation of two very different men, as moral codes and legal imperatives painfully collide. Set in the Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, The Scarlet Letter also sheds light on the nineteenth century in which it was written, as Hawthorne explores his ambivalent relations with his Puritan forebears. The text of this edition is taken from the Centenary Edition of Hawthorne's works, the most authoritative critical edition. It includes a new, wide-ranging introduction that sheds light on the novel's autobiographical, historical, and literary contexts, a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography, and thorough notes that provide essential information on Puritan and nineteenth-century life. - Publisher.
1850
Wonder book for girls and boys
Classical Mythology, Juvenile literature, Greek Mythology
Six legends of Greek mythology, retold for children by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Included are The Gorgon’s Head, The Golden Touch, The Paradise of Children, The Three Golden Apples, The Miraculous Pitcher, and The Chimaera. In 1838, Hawthorne suggested to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that they collaborate on a story for children based on the legend of the Pandora’s Box, but this never materialized. He wrote A Wonder Book between April and July 1851, adapting six legends most freely from Charles Anton’s A Classical Dictionary (1842). He set out deliberately to “modernize” the stories, freeing them from what he called “cold moonshine” and using a romantic, readable style that was criticized by adults but proved universally popular with children. With full-color illustrations throughout by Arthur Rackham.
1851
The House of the Seven Gables
Fiction, Haunted houses in fiction, Haunted houses
In a sleepy little New England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation -- or its downfall. Hawthorne called The House of the Seven Gables "a romance," and freely bestowed upon it many fascinating gothic touches. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic, and the historical, the novel is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work that Henry James declared "the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel."
1851
The Marble Faun
Fiction, Murder, Women art students
Hawthorne's novel of Americans abroad, the first novel to explore the influence of European cultural ideas on American morality. Although it is set in Rome, the fictive world of The Marble Faun depends not on Italy's social or historical significance, but rather on its aesthetic importance as a definer of 'civilization'. As in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is concerned here with the nature of transgression and guilt. A murder, motivated by love, affects not only Donatello, the murderer, but his beloved Miriam and their friends Hilda and Kenyon. As he explores the reactions of each to the crime, Hawthorne dramatizes both the freedoms a new cultural model inspires and the self-censoring conformities it requires. His examination of the influence of European culture on American travellers lay the groundwork for such later works of American fiction as Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad and Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady.
1840
Twice-told tales
Fiction, Social life and customs, American Historical fiction
Twice-Told Tales is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The stories had all been previously published in magazines and annuals, hence the name.
1837
Tanglewood tales for girls and boys
Mythologie grecque, Children's stories, American, Greek Mythology
1853

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne ranks 535 out of 7,302. Before him are Richard Bach, José Martí, Tyrtaeus, Robert Walser, Franz Werfel, and Jacob L. Moreno. After him are Kazuo Ishiguro, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Paul Claudel, T. S. Eliot, Bai Juyi, and Gaston Leroux.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne ranks 13. Before him are Wilhelm Eduard Weber, Emil Lenz, Allan Kardec, Matthias Jakob Schleiden, Mongkut, and Mikhail Glinka. After him are Richard Owen, Marie Taglioni, Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, Eugène Sue, John Deere, and Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve. Among people deceased in 1864, Nathaniel Hawthorne ranks 8. Before him are Ferdinand Lassalle, Maximilian II of Bavaria, Cheoljong of Joseon, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Vuk Karadžić, and Hong Xiuquan. After him are Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron, William I of Württemberg, Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, Leo von Klenze, Konstanty Kalinowski, and Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois.

Others Born in 1804

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1864

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United States

Among people born in United States, Nathaniel Hawthorne ranks 548 out of 20,380. Before him are Ernest Borgnine (1917), Theodore William Richards (1868), Richard Bach (1936), James B. Sumner (1887), Joseph McCarthy (1908), and Raquel Welch (1940). After him are Burt Young (1940), Bob Beamon (1946), Harold Lloyd (1893), Chet Baker (1929), Donna Summer (1948), and Terry Gilliam (1940).

Others born in United States

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Nathaniel Hawthorne ranks 52. Before him are George R. R. Martin (1948), Robert A. Heinlein (1907), Tom Clancy (1947), Alvin Toffler (1928), Tennessee Williams (1911), and Richard Bach (1936). After him are T. S. Eliot (1888), Sidney Sheldon (1917), William S. Burroughs (1914), James Baldwin (1924), Allen Ginsberg (1926), and Ellen G. White (1827).

American born Writers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous