CENTENARY ED WORKS NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE: VOL. VIII, THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS

The American Notebooks contains selections from Hawthorne's journals from 1835 to 1853, shortly before his departure for England, as well as some extracts from his letters within the same period. This title also contains many initial ideas which were to become stories and parts of romances, as well as meticulous observations of people and nature.

The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by William Charvat (1905-1966), Roy Harvey Pearce, and Claude M. Simpson, and with Fredson Bowers as textual editor, is the first of a major American author to be established in accordance with modern collating and editorial techniques, and the first, therefore, that can claim to be truly definitive. The texts established for the edition are in as close a form, in all details, to Hawthorne's final intentions, as the preserved documents of each work will permit.

Born in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his historical tales and novels about American colonial society. After publishing The Scarlet Letter in 1850, its status as an instant bestseller allowed him to earn a living as a novelist. Full of dark romanticism, psychological complexity, symbolism, and cautionary tales, his work is still popular today. He has earned a place in history as one of the most distinguished American writers of the nineteenth century.