Excerpt
"Nathaniel Hawthorne" (1804-1864)

For many years Nathaniel Hawthorne had attempted to become an established popular fiction writer. After a decent New England college education, Hawthorne soon returned to familiar Salem, Massachusetts where the aspiring author lived with his mother and sisters for twelve years, staying secluded in a lonely room writing short stories and novel manuscripts. In 1837, his first work titled Twice-Told Tales was successfully published.
Hawthorne was chummy with some of the more famous New England literary writers of his time including Herman Melville, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Two of Hawthorne's better known works are novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. "Young Goodman Brown," "The Great Stone Face" and "Rappaccini's Daughter" are three of the author's best known short stories.
Most of Hawthorne's retelling of classic stories from mythology had been published in his work Tanglewood Tales. Another famous Nathaniel Hawthorne short story collection is Twice Told Tales, which includes the selections "The Minister's Black Veil", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" and "The Great Carbuncle".