Talk:Nathaniel Hawthorne

Information discrepency

The current wikipedia article states "Hawthorne wrote in the comparative obscurity of what he called his "owl's nest" in the family home." According to "Elements of Literature: Fifth Course Literature of the United States. Edited by Kathleen Daniel. Published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. 1997. it was actually known as the "dismal chamber", can someone with editor rights please include this.

The "owl's nest" reference is from a letter Hawthorne wrote to Longfellow on June 4, 1837. From this same letter derives the footnoted quote in this article: "I have not lived, but only dreamed about living." I found this letter in The Viking Portable Hawthorne, edited by Malcolm Cowley. For an online source, see this page from Nathaniel Hawthorne by George Woodberry, where it is quoted. Here is the passage in question:

"Not to burden you with my correspondence, I have delayed a rejoinder to your very kind and cordial letter, until now. It gratifies me that you have occasionally felt an interest in my situation; but your quotation from Jean Paul about the 'lark's nest' makes me smile. You would have been much nearer the truth if you had pictured me as dwelling in an owl's nest; for mine is about as dismal, and like the owl I seldom venture abroad till after dusk."

In that same letter, a little further down on the linked page, Hawthorne again uses the image: "I intend in a week or two to come out of my owl's nest, and not return till late in the summer."

While looking for an online source of this "owl's nest" phrase, I found that he used it later in life as well. In Julian Hawthorne's biography of his parents, Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife (1884), the following link to Chapter 3, Part I includes a quotation from what Julian Hawthorne described as "the only trustworthy autobiographical fragment" of Hawthorne "known to be extant," which was "comprised in the following few paragraphs which he wrote out for his friend Stoddard, who was compiling an 'article' on him for the National Review, 1853." Here is the relevant passage from that autobiographical piece:

"From the press of Munroe & Co., Boston, in the year 1837, appeared 'Twice-Told Tales.' Though not widely successful in their day and generation, they had the effect of making me known in my own immediate vicinity; insomuch that, however reluctantly, I was compelled to come out of my owl's nest and lionize in a small way. Thus I was gradually drawn somewhat into the world, and became pretty much like other people. My long seclusion had not made me melancholy or misanthropic, nor wholly unfitted me for the bustle of life; and perhaps it was the kind of discipline which my idiosyncrasy demanded, and chance and my own instincts, operating together, had caused me to do what was fittest."

It would appear, then, that Hawthorne referred to his room as both an owl's nest, as in the above quotations, and as a dismal chamber, as referenced by yourself. - InvisibleSun 22:58, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

It might be good to use both phrases, as you get a better sense of what Hawthorne meant from both. Nareek 00:00, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Further Information

I'm removing the further information section. It's only a sentence or so long and is simply an assertion about Hawthorne's writing and personal philosophy (with several typos including in the section header). If it can be fleshed out and sourced it can certainly be added back.--Ahpsp 15:04, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

OK, I intend to make some changes to the descriptions in paragraph 6 as soon as RickK stops reverting them. There are glaring inaccuracies. For example, "The Blithedale Romance" is not about an elixir of life. Et cetera.

What do you say, RickK? Bds_yahoo

Out of curiosity, is Hawthorne's friend named Franklin Pierce the same as the 14th President of th U.S.? They graduated from Bowdoin within a year of eachother. If so he should be linked. -bmortimer

Yes, see http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.15456/article_detail.asp and http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/lfp.html.

-- Gruepig 04:07, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Sophia

The last revision by 68.223.13.132 greatly changes the picture of the Hawthorne's marriage. Can anyone provide a source for the claim that they had a "troublesome marriage"? Is there anything to suggest this in Sophia's journal or letters? For what it's worth, Melville seemed to think they had a happy relationship; he described their family as "the loveliest family he ha[d] ever met with, or anyone can possibly imagine" and says that Sophia "quite literally worshipped" Nathaniel. (Parker, Hershel. Herman Melville: A Biography) -- Gruepig 03:55, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• I wouldn't hesitate a whole lot about reverting out-of-left-field edits by anonymous IPs with only one edit to their "name" - if he has a source, it is up to him to return with it --JimWae 04:45, 2005 Mar 24 (UTC)

Reverting. -- Gruepig 17:28, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

What is this about Hawthorne dying while on a trip to the mountains? I just read an article in the New Yorker(March 14? issue) on his relationship with Sophia and her older sister Elizabeth. The article mentions Hawthorne dying, but I got the impression that he was sick for a while at his home with his wife when he died.

Also mentioned was a biography on Elizabeth Peabody. I'll see if I can find a copy of it...

I found a site that states Hawthorne died while on a trip to the mountains, it is http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hawthorn.htm...

Photos

Moved here from User_talk:JimWae

Hello. I noticed you changed back the Nathaniel Hawthorne image which size I had modified from "thumbnail" to "frame". I did so in the first place so that the picture, in its real, smaller size, would look much better than this and not appear with such a low resolution. I understand from your edit summary that you fixed the picture so it would be the same size as the others. I also saw that you had previously arranged the three images so that they are all aligned to the right. I do understand that this arrangement (same size and aligned to the right) makes the whole article look better, but I still think it's unfortunate that the first picture looks so bad when it is bigger.

I have a suggestion. In my opinion, the article contains too many pictures for its size. The second image ([1]) is a portrait that is almost identical to Hawthorne's appearance on the last picture ([2]). That illustration is also the one that was added the most recently on the article. I think the second picture should be removed from the article. The first picture could be changed to its normal size, and be aligned to the right of the text at the top of the article. The third picture could be aligned to the right or to the left in the "Writings" section. I think the article would look good that way. What do you think? -- Audrey 5 July 2005 05:15 (UTC)

I was wondering why you changed it - I never noticed lack of resolution, but now see it a bit. Maybe there's a better photo with higher resolution http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/hawthorne.html has the same photo in higher resolution - but less contrast --JimWae 2005 July 5 05:48 (UTC)

I uploaded a better resolution one myself. Better? --JimWae 2005 July 5 06:05 (UTC)

Ah, yes. This looks better. Thanks Jim. :) --Audrey 6 July 2005 00:00 (UTC)

The Way people saw it=

This section showed up yesterday, without any mention of it in discussion. I'm just going to delete it, if no one minds. It's uncited, unformatted, ungrammatical, and obviously unfactual. Check the revision history if you want to see it in its full badness.

Category

Oh please, you're just an illiterate twit trying to make himself sound smart by making others seem incompetent.

Pornographic stories

I am unable to find substantiation for the following comments:

"Prior to gaining fame, Hawthorne wrote several highly sexual and pornographic stories for sailors under an assumed name (this writing style would emerge in later stories as shown by Lora Romero's article, "Homosocial Romance: Nathaniel Hawthorne")."

The trufulness of this seems unlikely (the Romero article is not available for free online), but it has remained unchanged for a few days so it is possible I am wrong to think it is inaccurate. Could someone please provide a reference or remove this passage. Philip Cross 17:34, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

This was just part of some ongoing vandalism to the article. It's now deleted. - InvisibleSun 18:41, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

InvisibleSun, besides being a stupid name, has displayed a terrible understanding of Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing career. The fact that InvisibleSun would consider acurate updates to wikipedia as vandalism is a sign that InvisibleSun should be banned from wikipedia