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The War of the Worlds: Salem

HAWTHORNE NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, American writer, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, July 4, 1804. His earliest boyhood days were spent in Salem, but when he was fourteen years old the family moved to Maine. Here the young lad continued the solitary walks of which he was so fond, but in the wilderness, instead of the narrow streets of Salem. Even at this early date he had acquired a taste for writing, and carried a little blank-book in which he jotted down his notes. After a year in Maine, Hawthorne returned to Salem to prepare for college. He amused himself by publishing a manuscript periodical, and at times speculated upon the profession he would follow in the future. He wrote to his mother, "I do not want to be a doctor and live by men's diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer to live by their quarrels. So I don't see that there is anything left for me but to be an author. How would you like, some day, to see a whole shelf of books written by your son with 'Hawthorne's Works' printed on their backs?"