Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Hawthorne knew John Milton's Paradise Lost really well—so well that he'd argue with his big sister about the ways in which Satan is portrayed in the poem. Sounds just like our sibling fights! (Not.) (source)
In 1854 Hawthorne wrote: "It has often been a matter of regret for me, that I was shut out from the most peculiar field of American fiction, by an inability to see any romance, or poetry, or grandeur, or beauty in the Indian character." Oooookay, Hawthorne. Nice bit of prejudice there. (source)
When it was first published, all 2,500 copies of The Scarlet Letter were bought by readers within 10 days (source: McFarland, Philip. Hawthorne in Concord. New York: Grove Press, 2004. p. 136)
Hawthorne once called Salem "the most hateful place in the world." (source)
Hawthorne was a friend of Louisa May Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. (source)
Unlike his peers in college, Hawthorne wasn’t interested in entering a profession. He loved to read and loved to write short stories. (Source)
In 1851, Herman Melville dedicated his great epic about a whale, Moby Dick, to Nathaniel Hawthorne. (source)