The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Excerpt
The simple events of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life have long
been before
the public. From 1835 onward they may easily be traced in the
various
Note-books, which have been edited from his diary, and previous to
that
time we are indebted for them chiefly to the recollections of his
two
faithful friends, Horatio Bridge and Elizabeth Peabody. These
were
first systematised and published by George P. Lathrop in 1872, but
a
more complete and authoritative biography was issued by
Julian
Hawthorne twelve years later, in which, however, the writer
has
modestly refrained from expressing an opinion as to the quality of
his
father’s genius, or from attempting any critical examination
of his
father’s literary work. It is in order to supply in
some measure this
deficiency, that the present volume has been written. At the
same time,
I trust to have given credit where it was due to my predecessors,
in
the good work of making known the true character of so rare a
genius
and so exceptional a personality.
