American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, notorious for the “witch hunt” trials held there. His father, John Hawthorne, served as one of the judges at Salem. Hawthorne was raised by his mother after his father died when Hawthorne was only four years old. After years of writing and publishing anonymously or under pen names, he published in 1837 the collection Twice-Told Tales under his own name. Among his most famous works: the short story “The Birth-Mark” (1843) and the novel The Scarlet Letter (1850). Hawthorne died in 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire.