American Notebooks V8: VOL. VIII, THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS (Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 8) - Softcover

Hawthorne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814201865 ISBN 13: 9780814201862

Publisher: Ohio State University Press, 2016

Synopsis

The American Notebooks contains selections from Hawthorne's journals from 1835 to 1853, shortly before his departure for England, as well as some extracts from his letters within the same period. This title also contains many initial ideas which were to become stories and parts of romances, as well as meticulous observations of people and nature. The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by William Charvat (1905-1966), Roy Harvey Pearce, and Claude M. Simpson, and with Fredson Bowers as textual editor, is the first of a major American author to be established in accordance with modern collating and editorial techniques, and the first, therefore, that can claim to be truly definitive. The texts established for the edition are in as close a form, in all details, to Hawthorne's final intentions, as the preserved documents of each work will permit. Born in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his historical tales and novels about American colonial society. After publishing The Scarlet Letter in 1850, its status as an instant bestseller allowed him to earn a living as a novelist. Full of dark romanticism, psychological complexity, symbolism, and cautionary tales, his work is still popular today. He has earned a place in history as one of the most distinguished American writers of the nineteenth century.

About this title

About the Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. After graduating from university in 1825, he returned to Salem determined to become a writer and worked on short stories and historical sketches. In 1828 he published the novel Fanshawe at his own expense; it was a failure but led to a productive relationship with publisher Samuel Goodrich. He returned to writing short fiction, then worked for Goodrich as hack writer and editor. Hawthorne became a surveyor of the Boston Custom House in 1839, then left in 1841 to invest in a communal experiment, when he also married. Disappointed in communal life, he moved to Concord, Massachusetts and returned to serious writing in 1846 with Mosses from an Old Manse. After a further three years as a customs surveyor, he finally produced his first significant novel and masterwork, The Scarlet Letter, in 1850, followed by two more major novels and some of his best short stories. In 1853 a college friend became President and Hawthorne was appointed US consul at Liverpool, living in England and Italy for six years. He published a further novel and some essays on England on his return; four unfinished novels and passages from his notebooks were published on his death in 1864.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ohio State University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814201865
• ISBN 13: 9780814201862
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 849