The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Adapted by Joseph Cowley}

About the Book

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born at Salem, Mass., on July 4th, 1804. He led a shy and rather somber life with little encouragement to write, yet not wholly uncongenial in view of his temperament. His life is reflected in his “Twice-Told Tales” and other short stories, the product of his first literary period. In these stories, his understanding of men and women was displayed with great subtlety.

He was forty-six years old when “The Scarlet Letter” appeared. It is considered his best work, and is a good demonstration of his unique and imaginative mind. In 1850, the year “The Scarlet Letter” appeared, he began “The House of the Seven Gables,” a later romance or prose-tragedy of the Puritan-America as he knew it – missing art and the joy of life.

About the Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, on May 18th, 1864. Among the best of his published works are: Twice-Told Tales, 1837; Mosses from an Old Manse, 1846; The Scarlet Letter, 1850; The House of the Seven Gables, 1851: The Blithedale Romance, 1852; Life of Franklin Pierce, 1852; Tanglewood Tales, 1853; and The Marble Faun, 1860.