The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-08-06

writings. He realized, as few other
authors have realized, the indiseolu-
BILE connection between art and eth
les. He maintained the eternal
truth that what is false to the high
est life is false the truest art. Yet
there is no pseudo sentimentality,
no maudlin invective against vice,
no prudish affection of virtue in his
romances. Hawthorne faces the facts
of life squarely as we must all of US
face them. He has left us neither
false art nor false morality.
The life of our author was COM
paratively uneventful. Born in
Salem, Mass, July 4, 1904, he was
educated at his birthplace and at
Bowdoin College, Maine, from which
institution he was graduated in 1926,
one of his classmates being the poet
L~ongfellow. Another fellow-student
and his dearest personal friend
through life, was Franklin Pierce,
who was to become President of the
| United States in 1852. From the
pen of his instructor, Prof. Alpheus
S. Packard, we have the following
sketch of Hawthorne, the college
student: "The writer's memory
pictures him distinctly as he sat in
the Latin and Greek recitation room,
a dark-browed youth, with black,
dropping, full, inquisitive eyes; a
full he4d of dark hair a gentle,
grave, low, yet musical voice shy
as a maiden always rendering his
passage tastefully writing his Latin
exercises with facility and idiomati-
cally. His English themes we're
complimented by the instructor in
charge, Prof. Newman, whose com
pliments were worth having"
On leaving college in 1926 Haw-
thorne returned to Salem, there to
begin that long novitiate of twelve
years in solitude, of which he has
told us in the "Note Books" and in
the preface to the "Snow Image"
Here in an upper chamber, apart
from all his fellows save the sympa-
thetic mother and sister, and I'M
known even to his nearest neigh
bors, the young writer underwent
that long self-impOsed apprentice
ship which resulted in making him
one of the few perfect stylists in
English literature.
The first fruits of this dozen years
of voluntary exile was the publica-
ton of the ''Twice Told Tales in
1887. A second series was pub
lished in 1916. In 1851 and 1854 re-
spectively appeared-''The Snow I'm
age" and "Mosses from an Old
Manse." These four volumes-if we
omit the stories for children,
"Grandfather's Chair" and the
wonder Book Q851), and Tangle-
wood Tales" C852)-comprises the
list of Hawthorne's short stories.
Had he written nothing else their
author would be among the foremost
of American story-tellers. They re-
veal a perfection of expression, a
felicity of diction, and a delicacy of
sentiment, characteristic of few
writer's. Some of them, like "The
Old Apple Dealer" ''Lights from a
Steeple, " and "a Rillfrom the Town
Pump" T slight realistic sketches,
cameo-like in execution and exalted
by a subtle sense of humor. Others
are quaint stories of colonial history,
pervaded by a weird sense of mys-
%nwu on1 rhnC%1r nwncn~0n GA;11 |
others, like "Rappacini's Daughter"
young Goodman Brown" and
''ROger Malvern's Burial" are uni
versal Apologies, carefully carved
and exquisitely finished while
such tales as the 1.-THE Snow Image"
1.-THE Black VEIL" and "The Great
Stone Face" are among the most
beautiful of allegories.
In 1850 appeared the Scarlet Let
ter" Hawthorne's first long 70
nance. This book is the masterpiece
of American prOse-One of that
small group of novels not born to
die. 1t has given US in Hester Prynne
and little Pearl two portraits which
belong to the select inner cabinet of
literature. The latter is a UNIQUE
conception. She is as immortal as
GavrOche, the street gamin in ''Les
Miserables."
The 'tScarlet Letter" was pub
lished almost by accident. It's sue
cess, however, was Immediate and
complete, and inspired Hawthorne
to pen in rapid succession the three
other romances that he had time to
finish before death seized him-s.The
House of Seven Gables , (1851), The
B ithedale Romance 0852), and
The Marble Faun" Q86O). His ge-
MUS had blossomed late, and he was
doomed to early death In 1864.
while travelling with his dearest
friend, ex-P President Pierce, the great
rOmdnCer breathed hjS last Tn o1oso;o