1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne born July 4, on Union Street, Salem, Massachusetts, second of three children and only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Manning Hathorne; descended on both sides from prominent New England ancestors.
1808 Death of his father, a sea captain, at Surinam, in Dutch Guiana, leaving a widow and children partially dependent on her relatives, the Mannings.
1821 Attended Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce were his classmates.
1825 Graduated from Bowdoin College and returned to the "chamber under the eaves" in his mother's house in Salem and spent a dozen years in relative seclusion, reading and writing, rather than entering a trade or profession as was expected of him.
1828 Published Fanshawe: A Tale, anonymously and at his own expense; later recalled the book, which was based on many of his experiences at Bowdoin College, and he destroyed all the copies he could locate.
1830 Published in the Salem Gazette his first story, "The Hollow of the Three Hills."
1830-37 Wrote tales and sketches which appeared in newspapers, magazines, and especially The Token, an annual published by Samuel Griswold Goodrich.
1837 From March through August, edited The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge at Boston; with the help of his sister Elizabeth, he wrote or excerpted from books and periodicals the matter required to fill each monthly issue.
1838 Published Peter Parley's Universal History, which he wrote, again with Elizabeth's help, for the Peter Parley series issued by Samuel Griswold Goodrich; brought out a collection of eighteen stories and sketches in Twice-Told Tales, for which his Bowdoin classmate Horatio Bridge guaranteed the publishers against loss.
1839 Became engaged to marry Sophia Peabody, the semi-invalid daughter of Dr. Nathaniel and Amelia Peabody, and sister of Elizabeth, a teacher and a pioneer in the development of kindergartens, and sister of Mary Tyler, who became the wife of educator Horace Mann.
1839-40 Worked as a Measurer in the Boston Custom House; wrote very little in these years except for the entries in his notebook.
