The Advocate and news., 1898-03-02
COOPERATIVE READING CLUBS.
AMERICAN LITERATURE COURSE.
LESSON VII. PART 1.
THE CONCORD WRITER'S. NO. 2.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.
(1SO4-1S64.)

istence of national literature when we
have for it's igureheads such men Of
genius as Emerson Poe and others; but,
standing out by itself brighter, deeper
and more mysterious than all others Is
one surprising them in brilliancy, and
that is the genius and the artistic spirit
emanating Observation-Disclosures Haw-
thorne
He appeals to the heart; to the inner
consciousness Of man; to the mysterious
ego where is locked from the outer gaze
all the impulses and motives OF life.
Hawthorne was romancer pure and
simple, and not, as claimed by some
writer's, novelist.
All Of his stories are strange and mys-
terious; they are often sad and gloomy,
yet not more sad than the unspoken
thoughts in every heart. There is holy
sublimity in the sad thoughts of man
kind, for 1t is then we are brought nearer
to the fountain-head of purity; it is there
we realize the true conception Of repent
ance and forgiveness.
Hawthorne was not preacher, yet he
so plainly holds up the effect Of sin upon
the inner consciousness that we cannot
read the Marble Faun, the Scarlet Letter
and a number OF others without feeling
the delicately put yet solemn warning
contained in them.
His early environments were conducive
to the growth Of the imagination and the
delineation Of the ideals, and the human
passions, rather than the outward actions.
He was born July 4, 1904, In Salem,
where so many witches had been tor
tured, hanged and burned, over century
before.
His father, a retired sea captain, died
when Hawthorne was child of A. His
widowed mother thereafter lived live
Of seclusion, rarely seeing any one but
members of her own household.
She allowed her son to often visit his
grandfather, who liven on farm near
Sebago lake in Maine. When living there
the boy was without single companion
and 1t may be the habit Of being alone SO
much in childhood was the cause Of his
living so much the life Of hermit in
later years.
He graduated from Bowdoin College in
1926 in the same class with Longfellow,
and one year after the graduation of
Franklin Pierce, who afterward became
President of the United States. After
leaving college, Hawthorne remained in
seclusion for a number of years at the
old home in Salem, where he kept his
room for days at time, going out only
at night, when he wandered through the
old streets and along the seashore.
nna ~ uaVyt hOp oic ounnukNru had haau
Judge at the time of the Salem witch
craft delusion, and the thought Of this
filed Hawthorne with horror which
fascinated him. Many of the old houses
in Salem had been the scenes Of dark
hidden crimes, and by the aid Of few
facts, assisted largely by the iInagina-
tion, he wove many a tale regarding
them.
He was at one time one Of the custom
house inspectors at Salem, and from a
pile of old rubbish he found the scarlet
| letter "a" together with "a small roll
of dingy paper" and from these scraps
grew one Of his most successful ro'
mances, the Scarlet Letter. OF this Beers
says: Against this dark foil moved In
strong relief the figures Of Hester Prynne
her paramour, the Rev. Arthur Dimmes.
dale, her husband, old Roger Chilling
worth and her illegitimate child. In
tragic power, in its grasp Of the elemen'
tary passions of human nature and itt
deep subtle insight into the inmOst sec
rets Of the heart, this is Hawthorne'G
greatest book" The House Of Sever
Gables and the Blithesdale Romance soor
followed the Scarlet Letter, and from
the sale of these he was enabled to Dur
chase a little homePcalled The Wayside
at Concord
In the following year his old frient
Franklin Pierce became President, anC
he sent Hawthorne as Consul to Liver
pool. He remained abroad seven years
and as a result Of his time abroad W,
have the Marble Faun. The scenes ar
laid in Italy, and beautiful statue CAV,