The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-12-06
HAWTHoRNE's BIOGRAPHY.
New York Evening fost.i

born, lived, and died; when he began to write, and the dates of his principal books all these things have been narrated in a few pages of tue cyclopei iias, and noth- ing is ne6azed to supplement their accu- racy. A few glimpses have also been given US of the intellectual life of the great romancer. MT. James T. Fields sketch in Yesterdays with AuthoIs," |" Hawthorne in the English Men of Letters" series by Henry James, A Study of Hawthorne" by his son-in-law, George Parsons Lsthrop, and bio- graphical sketch by the same writer in the latest complete edition of the novel; iss's works, an essay by an Englishman (whose name we have forgotten). and the American, English, and Italian Note Books of Hawthorne ehimself-thesec con- prise all the biographical material of value which has heretofore found its way into print. We have the statement of Mrs. Hawthorne in her preface to the English Note Books that MT. Hawthorne had frequently and emphatically expressed the hope that no one would attempt to write his biography" For this reason, perhaps, his family have so long ab- stained from publishing an extended me- moriaL But MT. Julian Hawthorne, the romancer's son, recently broke through the reserve by publishing a number of papers on the "Scenes of Hawthorne's Romances in the Century, and he has now given us an elaborate biography under the title " N athaniel Hawthorne and His Wife Boston: ]. R. Osgood & Co). It is in two large and well printed volumes, with full index of seventy-6ve pages, and eight etchings, three of them representing Hawthorne at the ages ot thirty-six, fifty-six, and 6fty-eight. From these volumes we will extract few of the interesting features not found in previous books.
 To those who have imagined Flaw thorne as retiring, morose, and dreamy boy, it will be surprise to learn that he was distinguished by cool and dis eliminating judgment, with perception of the ludicrous which, especially in his earlier years, manifested itself in dis position to satire" He was daring but not reckless. Yet the ideal side of his nature was nourished by the seclusion in which his mother and sisters lived after his fathers death, by tales of tho revolu- tion and the war of 1872 and by tradi- tions of the witchcratt period in which his ancestors had borne a part. And here it may be said thXs Mr. Julian Haw- thorne makes an indignant denial of the slanderous stories that his father in his younger days led dissolute life, and was the victim of Gan unsuitable appetite for gin, brandy, and rum" The Hawthorne problem, he asserts, cannot be solved "by rarefying him into metaphysical ab- straction, nor by condensing him into gross sensualist"
 That he was very like other boys is shown by several letters written in his school.b days. One to his sister, when he was fifteen, contains some jingling rhymes which certainly did not fore shadow genius. He says, 1 am full of scraps of poetry can't keep it out of my brain."
 "t saw where in the lonely grave
 Departed genius lay;
 And mournful yew-trees o'er it wave
 To hide it from the day."
 In 1921, when he was seventeen, he writes to his mother: "I am quite recon oiled to goi ,g to college, since I am to spend the vacations with you. Yet four years of the best part of my life is great deal to throw away. have not yet con- cluded what profession shall have The being minister is, of course, out of the question. l should not think that even you could desire me to choose SO dull way of life Oh, no, mother was not born to vegetate forever in one place, and to live and die as calm and tranquil as puddle of water. As to lawyers, there are so many of them already that one- half of them (upon moderate calcula- tion) are in a state of actual starvation. A physician then seems to be Hobson's choice,' but yet l should not like to live by the diseases and in6rmities of my fellow-creatures. Oh, that 1 was rich enough to live without profess sionl What do you think of my becom- ing an author and relying for support upon my pen? Indeed, think the illeg- ibility of my hand writing is very author like. How proud you would feel to see my works praised by the reviewers as equal to the proudest productions of the scribbling sons of John Bull But authors are always poor devils, and therefore Satan may take them"
 From Bowdoin college he confdingly writes to his sister: "I have in a great measure discontinued the practice of playing cards. One of the students has been suspended lately for this offence, and two of our class have been fined. narrowly escaped detection myself, and mean for the future to be more careful" which shows that Hawthorne was pru. dent, although a genius. It is also re- freshing and extremely collegiate to learn that have but one good pair of panta- looms, the others being in rather a dilap- idated condition. If had time would tell you mighty story, how some of the students hung PArson Mead in effigy, and how one of them was suspended. Mother need not be frightened, as was not engaged in it."
 Indeed, his college career was much like tha. of the average boy. He was not "dig," played cards, had" wines Din his room, went shooting with Horatio Bridge when he should have been studying, but he never defrauded the college govern ment of any dutv he fhouoht thev had a