The complete online text of Biographical Sketches by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Although Nathaniel Hawthorne called himself "the obscurest man in American letters," his achievements in fiction, both as short-story writer and novelist, offer models fashioned too well for contemporary and later writers to ignore. Even though fame was...

When Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on our most patriotic holiday in 1804, his ancestral roots were already deeply planted in New England. Writing in The Scarlet Letter (1850) of his sentimental affection for the town of his birth,...

In sketches, tales, and romances published in the second third of the nineteenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne chose mainly American materials, drawing especially on the history of colonial New England and his native Salem in the time of his early America...

Recognizing political change as the hot new commodity, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is launching a television ad this week in New Hampshire and Iowa casting himself as the Republican best able to reclaim a wayward party and lead it in a new direction.Romney, a...

Hillary Rodham Clinton struck an intimate family note at a meeting in southern Iowa on Thursday night, describing her working-class family as the foundation for her values.She laughed as she recalled her late father, Hugh Rodham, as a frugal Republican who "didn't believe in credit."...

Political activist and journalist Mary Ann Shadd Cary had the strength and conviction to stand up for her beliefs and let nothing stand in her way.Cary was born a free black American to an elite family in Wilmington, Del., before the Civil War.Well educated and...

A great blessing in life is that most people can get used to anything. And a great curse in life is that most people can get used to anything. At home and on the battlefield, the most peaceful, decent men and women get used to...