MOBILE DIGITAL LIBRARY - SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN ...

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (Page 173)Because he was one of the founders of the short story in America, and because he isconsidered by many critics to be superior in style to all other American writers of fiction,Nathaniel Hawthorne has been chosen as the last of the group of American authorsrepresented in this collection. In reading the story "Feathertop," therefore, it is interestingto compare the style of the author with that of the other American writers who arerepresented here. The story may also be used as a good test of the composition of theshort story as given in the Introduction.Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born of a stern Puritan line in Salem,Massachusetts, the grimmest of all the Puritan communities. He was a graduate ofBowdoin College and lived much of his life at Concord and Salem.He was a happy child, by nature, but he was influenced by stern family traditions and theloneliness of his early environment. After the death of his silent, melancholy father, hismother brought up the children in the utmost seclusion. The decaying old seaport ofwitch-haunted memories in which he lived, also impressed profoundly the livelyimagination of the solitary boy. All these influences may be traced in the stories ofHawthorne with their strong moral tone and their delicate but often rather morbid fancies.Hawthorne, because of his timidity and self-depreciation, did not begin his real literary