Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times

Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times by James R. Mellow. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780099534594.

"Reads like a superbly crafted novel filled with fascinating characters. A brilliant piece of storytelling." -- John Gardner Winner of the 1983 National Book Award, James R. Mellows magisterial biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne places Americas first great writer in the midst of the literary and cultural turmoil of the early republic. Mellow draws on Hawthornes letters and notebooks, as well as on perceptive readings of his fiction in recreating the details of Hawthornes life: the long apprenticeship of the reclusive young author, his romantic courtship of Sophia Peabody, and his travels to Europe at the height of his literary career. More fascinating still is Mellows portrayal of Hawthornes stimulating, complicated relationships with his fellow pioneers in the creation of a uniquely American literature -- Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Louisa May Alcott. Hawthorne was also a lifelong friend of President Franklin Pierce, and Mellow follows the fortunes of Hawthornes political career which brought the writer into contact with the eras great politicians -- Daniel Webster, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, and Abraham Lincoln. An unparalleled panorama of nineteenth-century American intellectual life, Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times convincingly traces Hawthornes literary concerns -- the unspeakable secret guilt, the fall of man, the yearning for a lost paradise -- to the events of his enigmatic life.