Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Hawthorne photograph by Mathew B. Brady , ca.1860–1864
The young Nathaniel Hawthorne , painting by Charles Osgood , 1840
Nathaniel Hawthorne , painting by Emanuel Leutze , 1862

Nathaniel Hawthorne (* 4. July 1804 in Salem , Massachusetts ; † 19th May 1864 in Plymouth , New Hampshire ) was an American writer of romance . With his often allegorical novels and short stories he achieved world renown.

Life

Nathaniel Hawthorne came from an ancient Puritan family . His great-great-grandfather John Hathorne (Nathaniel first added a 'w' to the family name) was one of the judges at the Salem witch trials in 1692. For this reason alone, Hawthorne often dealt with the world of the Puritans of New England in his novels and short stories .

Hawthorne's birthplace in Salem, Massachusetts
Grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord

His father went to sea as the first officer and in 1796 brought the first elephant to America from Calcutta together with Captain Jacob Crowninshield , who later became a politician ; he died of yellow fever in 1808 on a ship off Suriname . Hawthorne was therefore raised by his mother and her relatives who protected him from the world. Since he was already noticed as a child with his narrative talent, he was sent to a private school. From 1821 to 1824 he studied at Bowdoin College in Maine, where he was accepted into the Phi Beta Kappa academic association . Hawthorne was friends with the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the future President Franklin Pierce . Initial failures as a writer forced him to accept employment in the customs service and in the postal administration (1839–1841). Later he was able to make a living from his writing work, something that only Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper had achieved in America before him .

From 1840 he belonged to the circle of transcendentalists and made friends with George Ripley , Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson . In 1841 he spent six months in the socially utopian settlement of Brook Farm , which had been founded by George Ripley shortly before. He later processed his time in the commune in the novel The Blithedale Romance . In 1842 he married the painter Sophia Peabody , who also belonged to the Transcendentalist Club , with whom he had a happy marriage and had 3 children until his death. During the first years of their marriage they lived in The Old Manse, which can still be seen today as a museum . In 1850 he made a short-lived friendship with Herman Melville , whom Hawthorne was a great role model ( Moby Dick is dedicated to Hawthorne). Of the correspondence between the two of them, only Melville's letters to Hawthorne have survived.

In 1852 he wrote a campaign biography for his school friend Franklin Pierce , and when he became president a year later, he got Hawthorne a post as American consul in Liverpool . Hawthorne stayed there for four years, spent another year and a half with his family in Italy , and eventually returned to Concord, where he lived at The Wayside . He died on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on his way to a vacation in the White Mountains . On May 23, 1864, he was buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.

Hawthorne is counted with Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe to the "dark" American romanticism. His novels and short stories are characterized by a deep epistemological and metaphysical skepticism . His subjects are often the dark sides of the soul as well as society: sin, guilt, punishment, intolerance and alienation. Hawthorne was canonized as the founder of a genuinely American national literature during his lifetime. Even today he is considered one of the most important American writers, and hardly a college student can get past The Scarlet Letter .

bibliography

First edition of The Scarlet Letter (1850)

Novels

  • Fanshawe , 1828
  • The Scarlet Letter , 1850, German "The Scarlet Letter"
  • The House of the Seven Gables , 1851, German "The House with the Seven Gables"
  • The Blithedale Romance , 1852, German "The Blithedale Masquerade" (also "A tragic summer")
  • The Marble Faun , 1860, German " The Marble Faun "

Short stories (selection)

  • The Hollow of the Three Hills , 1830, German " The hollow under the three hills "
  • An Old Woman's Tale , 1830, German " Story of an old woman "
  • The Wives of the Dead , 1831, German " The Women of the Dead "
  • Roger Malvin's Burial , 1832, dt. " Roger Malvins funeral "
  • My Kinsman, Major Molineux , 1832, German " My relative, the Major Molineux "
  • Mr. Higginbotham's Catastrophe , 1834, German "Mr. Higginbotham's disaster "
  • The Gray Champion , 1835, German " The gray fighter "
  • Young Goodman Brown , 1835, German " The young neighbor Brown "
  • Wakefield , 1835. There are several translations into German:
    • A man named Wakefield . German by Franz Blei . In: Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Man Called Wakefield and Other Tales . Edited by Hans Hennecke. Müller & Kiepenheuer, Bergen / Obb. 1949.
    • Wakefield . German by Günter Steinig. In: Nathaniel Hawthorne: The great carbuncle. Fantastic stories . Safari-Verlag, Berlin 1959.
    • Wakefield . German by Hannelore Neves:
      • in: Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Pastor's Black Veil: Eerie Tales . Winkler, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-538-06584-5 .
      • in: Nathaniel Hawthorne: The great stone face . Edited and with a foreword by Jorge Luis Borges . Edition Büchergilde, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-940111-09-0 (= The Library of Babel , Vol. 9).
    • Wakefield . Translated from the American and edited. by Joachim Kalka . Friedenauer Presse, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-932109-31-7 .
  • The Ambitious Guest , 1835, German " The ambitious guest "
  • The Wedding-Knell , 1835, with two German translations:
    • "The Wedding of the Dead" (German by Franz Blei, 1922)
    • " The wedding death bell " (Ger. By Hannelore Neves, 1977)
  • The Minister's Black Veil , 1836, German " The Pastor's Black Veil "
  • The May-Pole of Merry Mount , 1836, German "The Maypole of Merry Mount"
  • Dr. Heidegger's Experiment , 1837, German “Dr. Heidegger's experiment "
  • David Swan , 1837, German "David Swan"
  • The Great Carbuncle , 1837, dt. " The big carbuncle "
  • Rappaccini's Daughter , 1844, German " Rappaccini's Daughter " (also "The Flowers of Evil")
  • Earth's Holocaust , 1844, German "The burnt offering of the earth"
  • The Artist of the Beautiful , 1844, German "The Creator of the Beautiful"
  • The Old Manse , 1846, German “The old rectory”, translated and with an afterword by Karl-Heinz Ott ; Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2011 ISBN 978-3-455-40319-0
  • Main-Street , 1849, German "Main-Street"
  • The Great Stone Face , 1850, German "Das steinerne Antlitz" or "The great stone face" (translated by Alice Sieben, Gutenberg Book Guild 2007, ISBN 978-3-7632-5809-3 )
  • Ethan Brand , 1850, German "Ethan Brand"
  • The Snow Image. A Childish Miracle , 1850, German "The Snow Picture"

German collections of short stories:

  • The garden of evil . German by Franz Blei . Maschler, Berlin undated
  • The Forces of Evil: Scary Stories . German by Franz Blei. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-423-14300-4 .
  • The great carbuncle. Fantastic stories . German by Günther Steinig. Safari, Berlin 1959
  • Rappaccini's daughter and other stories. Selected, translated from the American and with an afterword by Ilse Krämer. Manesse, Zurich 1966.
  • Dr. Heidegger's experiment . German by Ingeburg Hucke. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1977
  • Stories. Sketches, forewords, reviews . German by Hannelore Neves, Siegfried Schmitz and Hans-Joachim Lang. Winkler, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-538-05255-7
  • The black veil. Selected stories . German by Lore Krüger . Insel, Leipzig 1980
  • The Pastor's Black Veil: Scary Tales . German by Vera Pagin. Winkler, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-538-06584-5

Other works

Work editions
  • The centenary edition of the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne . 23 volumes. Ohio State University Press, Columbus, Ohio 1962–1997:
    • Volume I: The Scarlet Letter
    • Volume II: The House of the Seven Gables
    • Volume III: The Blithedale Romance and Fanshawe
    • Volume IV: The Marble Faun
    • Volume V: Our Old Home
    • Volume VI: True Stories from History and Biography
    • Volume VII: A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales
    • Volume VIII: The American Notebooks
    • Volume IX: Twice-told Tales
    • Volume X: Mosses from an Old Manse
    • Volume XI: The Snow Image and Uncollected Tales
    • Volume XII: The American Claimant Manuscripts
    • Volume XIII: The Elixir of Life Manuscripts
    • Volume XIV: The French and Italian Notebooks
    • Volume XV: The Letters, 1813-1843
    • Volume XVI: The Letters, 1843-1853
    • Volume XVII: The Letters, 1853-1856
    • Volume XVIII: The Letters, 1857-1864
    • Volume XIX: The Consular Letters, 1853–1855
    • Volume XX: The Consular Letters, 1856-1857
    • Volume XXI: The English Notebooks, 1853-1856
    • Volume XXII: The English Notebooks, 1856-1860
    • Volume XXIII: Miscellaneous Prose and Verse
  • All works . 5 volumes. Bielefeld 1851–1852:
    • Volume 1: The Scarlet Letter
    • Volumes 2 and 3: The House of Seven Gables
    • Volumes 4 and 5: Stories Told Twice
  • Novels and short stories. Edited and translated by Franz Blei . 4 volumes. Müller & Co., Potsdam 1923:
    • Volume 1: The Scarlet Letter.
    • Volume 2: A tragic summer.
    • Volume 3: The house with the seven gables.
    • Volume 4: The Garden of Evil. Stories (contains: The Flowers of Evil , a man named Wakefield , Mr. Higginbothams disaster ; David Swan , The Cave of the Three Hills ; The big carbuncle ; The dead wedding ; Peter Goldthwaites treasure ; The wooden portrait ; woman Bullfrog ; Endicott and the Red Cross ; the gray warrior ; Edward Randolph's painting , Lady Eleanor's veil ; the masked ball ; the old Esther Dudley ; the Shaker wedding ; John Inglefield's Thanksgiving ; the prophetic images , the devil of writing ; Roger Malvins funeral ; the old maid in white ; the information Bureau )
  • Selected works in separate editions. Revised after the first German complete edition from 1851/52 with reference to the original editions. Edited by RW Pinson. Moewig, Munich:

Secondary literature

Biographies

  • Newton Arvin : Hawthorne . Little, Brown, Boston 1929.
  • Monika M. Elbert (Ed.): Nathaniel Hawthorne in Context. Cambridge University, Cambridge 2019, ISBN 978-1-1071-0933-9 .
  • Henry James : Hawthorne . Macmillan, London 1879.
  • James R. Mellow: Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times . Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston 1980, ISBN 0-395-27602-0 Reprint: Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1998. ISBN 0-8018-5900-X
  • Edwin Haviland Miller: Salem is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne . University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 1991, ISBN 0-87745-332-2 .
  • Randall Stewart: Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography . Yale University Press, New Haven 1948.
  • Arlin Turner: Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography . Oxford University Press, New York 1980, ISBN 0-19-502547-4 .
  • Edward Wagenknecht: Nathaniel Hawthorne: Man and Writer . Oxford University Press, New York 1961.
  • Brenda Wineapple: Nathaniel Hawthorne . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2003, ISBN 0-375-40044-3 .

Secondary literature in German

  • Paul Gerhard Buchloh : The representation of nature in Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories . In: Paul G. Buchloh et al. (Ed.): American stories from Hawthorne to Salinger · Interpretations. Kiel Contributions to English and American Studies Volume 6 . Karl Wachholtz Verlag Neumünster 1968, pp. 89–111.
  • Bernd Engler : Fiction and Reality: For the narrative conveyance of knowledge-skeptical positions in Hawthorne and Melville . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1991. ISBN 3-428-07070-4 (= writings on literary studies 6; at the same time habilitation thesis University of Freiburg).
  • Franz H. Link: The narrative art of Nathaniel Hawthorne. An interpretation of his sketches, stories and novels . Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg 1962. (= Frankfurt papers from the field of English and American Studies 7).
  • Luise Sanders: National Self-Image in Historiography and Literary Fiction. Nathaniel Hawthorne and the American view of history of his time . Hoffmann, Gießen 1990, ISBN 3-88098-037-3 (= contributions to English studies 10; also dissertation from the University of Gießen).
  • Manfred Menzel: Gossip, Rumor and Reality with Nathaniel Hawthorne . Frankfurt am Main 1996. (= New Studies in English and American Studies 69).
  • Frank Obenland: Providential Fictions. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Secular Ethics . Schöningh Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-76968-8 .
  • Helmut Schwarztraub: Fiction of Fiction. Justification and preservation of narration through theoretical self-reflection in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe . Heidelberg 2000. (= English Studies 281)

Web links

Commons : Nathaniel Hawthorne  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Nathaniel Hawthorne  - Quotes
Wikisource: Nathaniel Hawthorne  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne , publisher's website, accessed November 20, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Hawthorne, Nathaniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Salem , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1864
Place of death Plymouth , New Hampshire