Early American Literature discussion
Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
I always find anecdotes about Mr. Hawthorne's shyness to be fascinating...perhaps because I'm a little that way myself! 😉 This was published in The Dial, 1896...Some ten years after his death, a friend, looking towards the Hawthorne house, asked Mr. Bronson Alcott, “Would you be surprised, Mr. Alcott, to see Nathaniel Hawthorne some day gliding past your rustic fence as he used to do? ” “ No, sir, I should
not," replied the old philosopher, “for while he lived he seemed to me like an apparition from some other world. I used to see him coming down from the woods between five and six o‘clock, and if he caught sight of anyone in the road he would go under cover like a partridge. Those strange, suspicious side-glances of his! They are not anywhere in his writings.”
But then the story continues...
Alas, the “getting under cover " and the “ suspicious side-glances” may well have been not remotely connected with the approach or proximity of the wordy philosopher himself—from whom, it is recorded, even the patient Emerson would sometimes flee in dismay. After the latter's death, the domestic, doing the honors of the untenanted homestead to curious pilgrims, used to point to a certain low window and say : “That is the window Mr. Emerson used to jump out of, when he saw Mr. Alcott coming down the garden path." 😂
“That is the window Mr. Emerson used to jump out of, when he saw Mr. Alcott coming down the garden path." That is priceless! 😄
The serious Mr. Hawthorne.
He probably came to borrow money.
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Chocolate Bread Pudding Trifles
https://paperandsalt.org/2014/03/12/n...
Bon Appetit!
Ruth wrote: "Nathaniel Hawthorne: Chocolate Bread Pudding Trifleshttps://paperandsalt.org/2014/03/12/n...
Bon Appetit!"
Mmm, that sounds soooo good! 😋 And I didn't know that the vegetable garden at the Old Manse was planted by Thoreau!
What better way to celebrate Hawthorne's birthday than a walk through the fields with Mosses and New England meadowsweet? 😊
A few of my favorite quotes by Mr. Hawthorne...“The streak of sunshine journeying through the prisoner's cell; it may be considered as something sent from Heaven to keep the soul alive and glad within him. And there is something equivalent to this sunbeam in the darkest circumstances; as flowers, which figuratively grew in Paradise, in the dusky room of a poor maiden in a great city; the child, with its sunny smile, is a cherub. God does not let us live any where or any how on earth, without placing something of Heaven close at hand, by rightly using and considering which, the earthly darkness or trouble will vanish, and all be Heaven.”
“It is a comfortable thought, that the smallest and most turbid mud-puddle can contain its own picture of Heaven.”
“The human Heart to be allegorized as a cavern; at the entrance there is sunshine, and flowers growing about it. You step within, but a short distance, and begin to find yourself surrounded with a terrible gloom, and monsters of divers kinds; it seems like Hell itself. You are bewildered and wander long without hope. At last a light strikes upon you. You press towards it yon, and find yourself in a region that seems, in some sort, to reproduce the flowers and sunny beauty of the entrance, but all perfect. These are the depths of the heart, or of human nature, bright and peaceful; the gloom and terror may lie deep; but deeper still is this eternal beauty.”
“…just as there comes a warm sunbeam into every cottage window, so comes a lovebeam of God's care and pity for every separate need.”
Oh, another line that is very dear to me is this one from 'The Ambitious Guest'. I don't really know how to explain it, but these few words changed my whole outlook on life during a very difficult time. They had found the "herb, heartsease," in the bleakest spot of all New England.
Isn't wonderful how nature reminds us ofhope in the most unexpected ways.
These are some of his quotes I appreciate:
"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious
as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So
I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air."
"Christian faith is a grand cathedral, with divinely
pictured windows. Standing without, you see no
glory, nor can possibly imagine any; standing within,
every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable
splendors."
"We must not always talk in the market-place of
what happens to us in the forest."
"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."
WOW!!
Meg wrote: "What better way to celebrate Hawthorne's birthday than a walk through the fields with Mosses and New England meadowsweet? 😊"
That is lovely, Meg.
I would love to grow New England
meadowsweet, how pretty.
Meg wrote: "A few of my favorite quotes by Mr. Hawthorne...“The streak of sunshine journeying through the prisoner's cell; it may be considered as something sent from Heaven to keep the soul alive and glad w..."
I can why you and Doreen I engrosses in
Hawthorne's work.
"Easy reading is damn hard writing."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
This is the part you say "Thank You".
Ruth wrote: "Isn't wonderful how nature reminds us ofhope in the most unexpected ways.
These are some of his quotes I appreciate:
"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious
as autumn sunshine by staying ..."
Those are sooo good Ruth! I don't think I'd read the second quote before but how beautifully true!
Ruth wrote: ""Easy reading is damn hard writing."- Nathaniel Hawthorne
This is the part you say "Thank You".
Haha, I often think of this quote when I'm admiring how smoothly his writing flows!
From Appleton's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, 1870..."Hawthorne seems to have been from early youth, by nature, a silent and a solitary man. Curtis thus describes him as present at an “aesthetic tea " at Emerson’s: “Whatever fancies it inspired did not flower at his lips. But there was a light in his eye which assured me that nothing was lost. So supreme was his silence that it presently engrossed me to the exclusion of every thing else. There was very brilliant discourse; but this silence was much more poetic and fascinating.” And elsewhere he says that “his sympathy was so broad and sure that, although nothing had been said for hours, his companion knew that not a thing had escaped his eye, nor had a single pulse of beauty in the day or scene or society failed to thrill his heart. In this way his silence was most social. Everything seemed to have been said."
Mrs. Hawthorne on her husband... "Beauty and the love of it in him are the true culmination of the good and the true, and there is no beauty to him without these bases."
From 'The Eternal Building, or The Making of Manhood', by George T. Lemmon (1899)...Hawthorne was rather morosely shy; he would turn his back
to avoid recognition, and walk the streets with his eyes on
the ground to avoid recognizing others. He knew his
disease was unpardonable, and wrote, “God may forgive
sins, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or
earth.”
A picture of Hawthorne I'd never seen before...it must have been not long before his death. 
Meg wrote: "Mrs. Hawthorne on her husband... "Beauty and the love of it in him are the true culmination of the good and the true, and there is no beauty to him without these bases.""Beauty based on virtues
is the most honorable.
Meg wrote: "I picture of Hawthorne I'd never seen before...it must have been not long before his death. "
I can't picture him jumping out
of the window, he looks too
dignified for that. I wonder what
he is reading?
Meg, have you considered
putting together a
N.E.L. photo album?
You have uploaded a lot of
good photos and it would be
nice to see them all in one
section for perusal.
Ruth wrote: "Beauty based on virtues is the most honorable."
Amen to that! 😊
Ruth wrote: "I can't picture him jumping out if the window, he looks too
dignified for that. I wond..."
Hawthorne would hide in the woods. It was Emerson who jumped out the window when he saw Mr. Alcott coming. Somehow I find that hard to picture too, though. 😂 I tried zooming in on the picture but couldn't tell what the book was. I wonder if it is one of his?
Oooh, a photo album is a great idea!! Thanks for another lovely suggestion, Ruth! 😊
Hawthorne (center) with publishers J. T. Fields (left) and William Ticknor (right). I like these pictures a lot. Mr. Hawthorne appears to be smiling. 
Meg wrote: "Ruth wrote: "I can't picture him jumping out if the window, he looks too
dignified for that. I wond..."
Hawthorne would hide in the woods. It was Emerson who jumped out the window when he saw Mr..."
It's so unusual to see one of him
smiling.
I have seen other photos of
Hawthorne that seem to be
an intrusion.
Thanks for posting these
snippets of the authors lives,
it's fun way to learn about
them and certainly more
memorable. 😄
That doesn't speak very well
of Mr. Alcott.
This was taken in 1848, two years after the publication of Mosses from an Old Manse. He is quite imposing! All the stories of him turning his back when a stranger walked into the room to avoid being recognized...I still wonder how anyone could fail to notice him! 
Mod
Though not a New England writer herself (she was originally from Wheeling, in what is today West Virginia), Rebecca Harding Davis visited the Hawthornes at Wayside in Concord for a few days in 1862, while she was still Rebecca Harding. Tillie Olsen has a fascinating description (based on Rebecca's own written reminiscences) of the visit in her Biographical Interpretation, on pp. 104-109 of Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories. The fledgling writer wasn't at all favorably impressed with Emerson and Bronson Alcott, but she and Hawthorne really hit it off; "It seems as if we had known you always," he told her at parting. (Sadly, they never had the chance to see each other again, since Hawthorne died in 1864.)
Werner wrote: "On the whole, I don't read a lot of secondary treatments of literature, American or foreign --I'm more apt to read the literature itself, since there's still so vastly much of it I haven't read! Th..."I came across that essay a few months ago, Werner! It was really good! Another great work on Hawthorne and his writings (if you ever have the time!😄) is Hawthorne's Country by Helen Archibald Clarke.
I will have to add 'Life in the Iron-Mills' to my list as well! Thank you so much for sharing that anecdote! 😊
Mod
Ruth wrote: "In "Ethan Brand", what is left in Bartram's kiln at the end of the story?a pouch of gold coins
skeleton with a heart of lime
singed pink ribbons
Bartram's dead son"
DOREEN!!!!! I haven't read this story yet...shocking, I know. 😂
Meg wrote: "Ruth wrote: "In "Ethan Brand", what is left in Bartram's kiln at the end of the story?a pouch of gold coins
skeleton with a heart of lime
singed pink ribbons
Bartram's dead son"
DOREEN!!!!! ..."
😮-Oh! Sorry!
We'll freeze the question until then.
Meg wrote: "This was taken in 1848, two years after the publication of Mosses from an Old Manse. He is quite imposing! All the stories of him turning his back when a stranger walked into the room to avoid bein..."I just received a stern look for jumping ahead.
(See Hawthorne message 24)
Ruth wrote: "I just received a stern look for jumping ahead.(See Hawthorne message 24)"
Yep, he's looking right at you! 😂
Ruth wrote: "🍭"Now really Ruth, does he look like he can be bribed with a lollipop?! 😂
I know it's ridiculous. I have infected by Emma. 😂
Ruth wrote: "I know it's ridiculous. I have infected by Emma. 😂"
Yeah but you started it... 😂 😂 😂
It started as your consolation, now it's a way of life.
Count how many Emma
gives away each day.😂
She is every child's dream fairy.
A walking Candy Land.😂
Ruth wrote: "I know it's ridiculous. I have infected by Emma. 😂"
Hey you started it! *trying to put blame on others* 😂😂
Ruth wrote: "It started as your consolation, now it's a way of life.
Count how many Emma
gives away each day.😂
She is every child's dream fairy.
A walking Candy Land.😂"
🍭👶
Emma wrote: "Ruth wrote: "It started as your consolation, now it's a way of life.
Count how many Emma
gives away each day.😂
She is every child's dream fairy.
A walking Candy Land.😂"
🍭👶"
😄
This is why I love Mr. Hawthorne! From 'Appleton's Journal of Literature, Science, and Art', 1870..."Few men have written, in our day, of such true originality and genius as Nathaniel Hawthorne. He seized upon the dry and barren scenes and traditions of New England life, which to most minds seemed utterly destitute of all features of poetry or romance, and, touching them with the magic of his fancy, transformed them into realms of beauty and chronicles of wild mystery that are scarcely surpassed in the pages of any fiction that has been written.The chambers of his tales are crowded with many grim and ghastly visions; they are full of moth and rust, of cobwebs and thick-piled dust; the atmosphere is often heavy with suggestions of horror, and the reader advances with a thrill of terror. But there are also everywhere passages of wonderful and tender beauty, descriptions as minute in detail as the rarest photographs, bringing back the old time and the men and women who lived in it as vividly and lifelike as the people whom the reader meets in his every-day walks....If you listen to his story, the lonely pastures and dull towns of our dear old homely New England shall become suddenly as radiant with grace and terrible with tragedy as any country and any time."
Mod
Doreen wrote: "If I see anything in this thread against my beloved Hawthorne I will hunt you all down. Lol"😂 Well you won't see anything like that from me!
"Hawthorne's writings are 'a pure and living stream of manly thought and feeling, which characterizes always the true man, the Christian, the republican and the patriot.' " --Orestes Brownson, The Boston Quarterly Review
Longfellow's review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales... "The book, though in prose, is written nevertheless by a poet."http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/nh...
This may be random but I wanted to share that I was in a used bookstore the other day looking for a copy of the Scarlet Letter, and I found this really cool vintage looking copy that had illustrations. BUT it was missing the whole introduction!!! I am so glad I opened it to check out the first few pages. Blasphemy 😛
Cassie wrote: "This may be random but I wanted to share that I was in a used bookstore the other day looking for a copy of the Scarlet Letter, and I found this really cool vintage looking copy that had illustrati..."Oh wow!! Haha, I just did a rant about this yesterday...it's so sad that the great classics are being "abridged for modern readers"! I loved the introduction to 'The Scarlet Letter'. It made Hawthorne quite a few enemies in Salem though! 😄
Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne outside The Wayside, between 1860 and 1864. 
Mod
Oh heavens his hair looks better than mine when I first wake up or wake up from a nap! lol
Doreen wrote: "Oh heavens his hair looks better than mine when I first wake up or wake up from a nap! lol"Mine too 🤣
Mod
Early American Literature
Books mentioned in this topic
Mosses from an Old Manse (other topics)Twice-Told Tales (other topics)
Twice-Told Tales (other topics)
Hawthorne's Country (other topics)
American Classics Reconsidered: A Christian Appraisal (other topics)
More...
Of course, this isn't limited to today only, so if you come across something interesting relating to Mr. Hawthorne at any time, please feel free to share! I'll be opening other threads in this folder as well for other NE authors!