Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on Independence Day, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a sea captain whose father was also a sea captain. Hawthorne's ancestors had been in Salem for a good part of two hundred years.

After preparing for college with a tutor in Salem, Nathaniel entered Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, from which he was graduated with the class of 1825.

In 1836, he assumed a position as editor of The Atlantic Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge.

In 1837, he published his first collection of stories entitled Twice Told Tales.

He died on May 19, 1864, while on a trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire with his friend, Franklin Pierce.