Born 4 July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne (who added a "W" to the family name) was the middle child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Manning Hathorne, who also had two daughters, Elizabeth and Louisa. Young Nathaniel was a descendant of Puritan settlers in Salem and the adjoining communities. His father, captain of a ship, died in 1808 in Surinam (Dutch Guiana) of yellow fever. Lacking funds to maintain her own household, Elizabeth Manning Hathorne retreated to her parents' home and looked to her Manning relatives for support. Reclusive by nature, she remained a widow, living in Salem except for the years she removed her family to Raymond, Maine, where her brother built her a house and where Nathaniel "ran quite wild" as he skated, fished, and hunted. Before making that move, she had begun Nathaniel's education at home, placing him (because of a leg injury he suffered while playing ball) under the tutelage of Joseph Emerson Worcester.
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