Because he was one of the founders of the short story in America, and
because he is considered 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 authors represented in this
collection. In reading the story "Feathertop," therefore, it is
interesting to compare the style of the author with that of the other
American writers who are represented here. The story may also be used
as a good test of the composition of the short 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 of Bowdoin 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 the loneliness of his early environment. After the death
of his silent, melancholy father, his mother brought up the children in
the utmost seclusion. The decaying old seaport of witch-haunted
memories in which he lived, also impressed profoundly the lively
imagination of the solitary boy. All these influences may be traced in
the stories of Hawthorne 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 career until rather late. We owe it to his
sympathetic yet practical wife that he ever published his writings. She
recognized the value of the stories he had written and believed in his
genius. Since he loathed the duties of the custom house where he was
employed as an official, Mrs. Hawthorne urged him to give up this
occupation and devote himself to his true vocation, that of a writer,
in spite of its uncertainties as to success and financial returns.
Hawthorne's imagination early led him into the field of romance; that
is, he told tales full of strange and fanciful adventure, revealing the
ideal or spiritual side of human nature. According to some of our best
critics, Hawthorne is said to be our greatest romantic novelist.