Born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, American author Nathaniel Hawthorne was raised by a widowed mother in his uncle’s household. Hawthorne’s ancestors had been heavily involved in Puritanism, a strict sect of Christianity that focused on the inherent evilness and sinfulness of people. Puritans were known for their strict moral code and their desire for others to adhere to the same code. Hawthorne had an ancestor named William Hathorne who was a magistrate and had ordered the public flogging of a Quaker woman, and William’s son John was a judge in the Salem witch trials. The shame that Hawthorne felt about his ancestors’ actions led him to change the spelling of his name from Hathorne to Hawthorne when he started writing so that he could distance himself from their actions.

Hawthorne grew up mainly in Salem and attended Bowdoin College in Maine. While in college, he wrote his first novel, Fanshawe. He was later embarrassed by the quality of the writing and tried to prevent any copies from being read. A few years after his graduation, he had substantially honed his craft and published “The Hollow of the Three Hills,” as well as several other short stories. His writing generated little income for several years, and he supported himself with odd jobs, even living for a short time at the utopian commune Brook Farm.