Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is a prominent 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is chiefly noted for his treatment of sin, punishment, and salvation through allegorical settings. Most of his major works are engendered by a sense of guilt about the erroneous activity by his ancestors in the notorious Salem Witch Trials in 1962. Although, he wrote during the golden age of transcendentalism, Hawthorne was completely anti-transcendentalist by temperament.
