Nathaniel Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorne was the second born of three children to his father Captain Hathorne, who was absent at his birth and died when Nathaniel was young. Hawthorne later added the "w" to his name when he began writing. Having little interaction with children his own age due to a foot injury that kept him out of school, Hawthorne became attracted to literature, namely the classics. In the summer of 1816, he and his family moved to Maine where he discovered the freedom of the wilderness (Petrus 1).

In the years from 1821 to 1823 Hawthorne attended classes at Bowdoin College, which was located in Brunswick, Maine. It was here that Hawthorne met two men, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce, who became prominent influences in his later life. After graduation from Bowdoin College, Hawthorne spent twelve years living at his mother's house while honing his...