The son of a ship captain, Nathaniel Hathorne, and Elizabeth Clarke Manning, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on Independence Day in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. His paternal ancestors came over from England in 1630, and his maternal ancestors in 1679. Hawthorne's father died in 1808, and his mother and her sisters raised him in Salem and at his maternal uncle's house in Raymond, Maine. There, Hawthorne spent time roaming the woods and taking long meditative walks around Lake Sebago, developing what he called his "cursed habits of solitude." After graduating from Samuel Archer's School in Salem, Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College, graduating in 1825. At Bowdoin, Hawthorne made connections and friends that would prove influential throughout his life, including future President Franklin Pierce; Horatio Bridge, his lifelong best friend; Congressman Jonathan Cilley; and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. While in college, Hawthorne added a w to his name; read widely, both in and outside...