Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times

By James R. Mellow

Book Overview

"Reads like a superbly crafted novel filled with fascinating characters. A brilliant piece of storytelling." -- John Gardner Winner of the 1983 National Book Award, James R. Mellow's magisterial biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne places America's first great writer in the midst of the literary and cultural turmoil of the early republic. Mellow draws on Hawthorne's letters and notebooks, as well as on perceptive readings of his fiction in recreating the details of Hawthorne's life: the long apprenticeship of the reclusive young author, his romantic courtship of Sophia Peabody, and his travels to Europe at the height of his literary career. More fascinating still is Mellow's portrayal of Hawthorne's stimulating, complicated relationships with his fellow pioneers in the creation of a uniquely American literature -- Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Louisa May Alcott. Hawthorne was also a lifelong friend of President Franklin Pierce, and Mellow follows the fortunes of Hawthorne's political career which brought the writer into contact with the era's great politicians -- Daniel Webster, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, and Abraham Lincoln. An unparalleled panorama of nineteenth-century American intellectual life, Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times convincingly traces Hawthorne's literary concerns -- the unspeakable secret guilt, the fall of man, the yearning for a lost paradise -- to the events of his enigmatic life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080185900X
• ISBN13: 9780801859007
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 698 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

the shyest grape

A remarkable literary biography, this, that succeeds in conveying both a sense of Hawthorne, the writer, and Hawthorne, the man. It also builds up a most appealing set of mini portraits of some fascinating figures from the first half of the 19th century, among them the Peabody sisters [family of Hawthorne's wife, Sophia], Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, Bronson Alcott [father of Louisa May], Melville, and countless others. What an extraordinary period this was in American cultural life! It's not a short read, but it's never dull, and, more often than not, close to rivetting. Mellow uses to wonderful effect extracts from Hawthorne's letters and notebooks, allowing "the shyest grape" of them all [Melville about Hawthorne] to speak directly. Not afraid to use Hawthorne's fiction as a way into our knowledge of the man, Mellow is, nevertheless, mostly restrained, aware that the relationship between a life and its work is seldom simple. If, very occasionally, the insights Mellow comes up with border on the facile, there are enough genuinely interesting thoughts to keep the literary analysis helpful. But the great success of the book lies, I think, in its even-handedness and neutrality of tone, and in its richness of detail - excellent notes and index, too.

Highly recommend this biography

I have recently continued my reading journey by moving to non-fiction, including biographies. This is a very easy book to read. I have found myself liking Hawthorne and sometime I have to keep reading to find out what happens next in his life instead of going to sleep. I also find it very interesting finding out how people lived 150 years ago. Their problems are the same ones we have today - money, kids, in-laws, etc. They have gardens in the summer, growing the same vegatables, and are snowed in during the winter. New England never changes. I have read W. Manchester's biographies of Douglas MacArthur and the Krupps and Thayer's biography of Beethoven This book is as good as those three.