'Easy Reading . . . Hard Writing'

“Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Born in Salem, MA, on July 4, 1804, Hawthorne became one of America’s best-known and most read writers.  His tales on history, morality and religion – like Twice Told Tales, The Scarlet Letter, and House of the Seven Gables – continue to be studied in English and writing departments everywhere. 

Much admired by fellow writers, including such luminaries as Longfellow, Emerson, Melville and Poe, he was often consulted by them.  Melville dedicated Moby Dick to his friend, writing: "In token of my admiration for his genius, this book is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne."

“The style of Mister Hawthorne,” Poe wrote in a review of Mosses from an Old Manse, “is purity itself.... We look upon him as one of the few men of indisputable genius to whom our country has as yet given birth.”

After his premature death at age 59 (perhaps from stomach cancer, although never formally diagnosed) Hawthorne was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in an area that has become known as Authors’ Ridge.  Many other great writers of the day served as pallbearers at his funeral. 

“Easy reading,” Hawthorne said about his work, “is damn hard writing.”

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