Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Master of horror, meet master of horror: Stephen King said that "Young Goodman Brown" inspired his short story, "The Man in the Black Suit." (source)
In 1836, Hawthorne became the editor of the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. The magazine went bankrupt after a few months. Maybe it wasn't so entertaining after all. (source)
Hawthorne for kids! Between 1840 and 1841, Hawthorne published a series of historical books designed for children. He even re-visited some of the same Puritan material that made it into "Young Goodman Brown." Minus a lot of the doom and darkness, of course. We hope. (source)
Hawthorne's last name wasn't originally "Hawthorne." It was Hathorne—the spelling used by Hawthorne's Puritan ancestors. However, the Puritan Hathornes had spelled their name "Hawthorne" while they were still living in England in the 16th century. Confused? So are we. (source)