Erlich, Gloria C., Family Themes and Hawthorne's Fiction: The Tenacious Web, Rutgers University Press, 1984.

Erlich believes it is Margaret's husband who lives, and Mary's who dies.

Gale, Robert L., A Nathaniel Hawthorne Encyclopedia, Greenwood, 1991.

Gale's exhaustive reference work includes entries on every story, sketch, and novel that Hawthorne wrote. This is an indispensable reference book.

Mellow, James R., Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times, Johns

Hopkins University Press, 1998.

This is a reprint of the 1983 edition, which won the 1983 National Book Award. Mellow's biography places Hawthorne in the midst of the literary and cultural turmoil of the early republic. The biography traces Hawthorne's literary concerns to the events of his life.

Pickard, Samuel T., ed., Hawthorne's First Diary, 1972. Though the authenticity of this book has been questioned, it contains a wealth of information on Hawthorne's personality, his living situation, and his literary opinions.

Thompson, G. R., The Art...