We all read Hawthorne's stories and books
THE SCARLET LETTER and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES in school, but did you
learn what made the handsome brooding genius tick, and what haunted him?
I’ve always been fascinated with Hawthorne’s
dark stories, but never knew he wrote out of his own fears and demons until I
began researching my story about him and his wife Sophia. This was a true love
story.
About FOR THE LOVE OF
HAWTHORNE
Salem, Massachusetts witnessed horrific and shameful events in
1692 that haunted the town for three centuries. Accused as witches, nineteen
innocent people were hanged and one was pressed to death. Judge John Hathorne
and Reverend Nicholas Noyes handed down the sentences. One victim, Sarah Good,
cursed Noyes from the hanging tree: “If you take away my life, God will give
you blood to drink!” She then set her eyes on Judge Hathorne. “I curse you and
your acknowledged heirs for all time on this wicked earth!” Hathorne was not
only Sarah Good’s merciless judge; he also fathered her son Peter and refused
to acknowledge him.
In 1717, Nicholas Noyes choked on his own blood and died. Every
generation after the judge continued to lose Hathorne land and money, prompting
the rumor of a family curse. By the time his great great grandson Nathaniel was
born, they faced poverty.
Ashamed of his ancestor, Nathaniel added the ‘w’ to his last name.
His novels and stories explore his beliefs and fears of sin and evil, and he
based many of his characters on overbearing Puritan rulers such as Judge
Hathorne.
When Nathaniel first met Sophia Peabody, they experienced
instantaneous mutual attraction. Sparks flew. He rose upon my eyes and soul a
king among men by divine right, she wrote in her journal.
But to Sophia’s frustration, Nathaniel insisted they keep their
romance secret for three years. He had his reasons, none of which made sense to
Sophia. But knowing that he believed Sarah Good’s curse inflicted so much
tragedy on his family over the centuries, she made it her mission to save him.
Sarah was an ancestor of Sophia’s, making her and Nathaniel distant cousins—but
she kept that to herself for the time being.
Sophia suffered severe headaches as a result of childhood mercury
treatments. She underwent routine mesmerizing sessions, a popular cure for many
ailments. Spirits sometimes came to her when mesmerized, and as a spiritualist
and medium, she was able to contact and communicate with spirits. She knew if
she could reach Sarah and persuade her to forgive Judge Hathorne, Nathaniel
would be free of his lifelong burden.
Sarah Good’s son Peter had kept a journal the family passed down
to the Peabodys. Sophia sensed his presence every time she turned the brittle
pages and read his words. John Hathorne’s legitimate son John also kept a
journal, now in the Hawthorne family’s possession. Living on opposite sides of
Salem in 1692, Peter and John wrote in vivid detail about how the Salem trials
tormented them throughout their lives.
Nathaniel finally agreed to announce their engagement, and married
Sophia on July 9, 1842. They moved into their first home, The Old Manse in
Concord, Massachusetts. Wanting nothing else but to spend the summer enjoying
each other, we became Adam and Eve, alone in our Garden of Eden, Sophia wrote
in her journal.
As success eluded Nathaniel, they lived on the verge of poverty.
After being dismissed from his day job at the Salem Custom House, he wrote The
Scarlet Letter, which finally gained him the recognition he deserved. But the
curse he believed Sarah cast on his family still haunted him. In the book he
asks for the curse to be lifted.
The House of the Seven Gables,
Salem, MA, built in 1668
Photo by Me
Sophia urged Nathaniel to write a novel about the house, knowing
it would be cathartic for him. While they lived in Lenox, Nathaniel finished
writing The House of the Seven Gables. The Gothic novel explored all his fears
and trepidations about the curse. He told Sophia, “Writing it, and especially
reading it aloud to you lifted a tremendous burden off my shoulders. I felt it
physically leave me. I carried this inside me since my youth and couldn’t bring
it out to face it. And I have you, and only you, to thank.”
But he did not believe the curse could be lifted.
Sophia invited renowned spiritualist John Spear to The Gables. She
explained that she needed to complete one final step to convince Nathaniel the
curse was lifted.
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