Twice Told Tales

Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 - May 19, 1864) was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, where the poet Longfellow was also a student, and spent several years travelling in New England and writing short stories before his best-known novel The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850. His writing was not at first financially rewarding and he worked as measurer and surveyor in the Boston and Salem Custom Houses. In 1853 he was sent to Liverpool as American consul and then lived in Italy before returning to the US in 1860.