Mosses from an Old Manse: Selections

"Between two tall gate-posts of rough-hewn stone (the gate itself having fallen from its hinges, at some unknown epoch) we beheld the gray front of the old parsonage, terminating the vista of an avenue of black-ash trees." So begins Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1846 sketch "The Old Manse," which leads off this collection of short stories. Hawthorne and his wife Sophia lived at the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts from 1842-1845, during the first years of their marriage. The sixteen other selections collected here were all written during the time the Hawthornes lived in the house, today a National Historic Landmark. "They should be sold by the hundred-thousand, and read by the million; and admired by every one who is capable of Admiration." -Herman Melville review of "Mosses from An Old Manse"


About the Author
Hawthorne, Nathaniel: - Born in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is one of America's greatest writers. His classic novels include The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, both in the dark romanticism genre, with moral messages and a Puritan influence. He also wrote short stories and non-fiction. Hawthorne, who spent significant parts of his life in The Berkshires and Concord, Massachusetts, was born with the surname Hathorne. He added the w to distance himself from his great-great-grandfather John Hathorne, the unrepentant Salem magistrate and chief interrogator of the accused witches during the Salem witch hysteria of 1692.