HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL, an American writer, born in Salem, Mass., July 4, 1804, from a long New Eng land ancestry. When he was four years old, his father, a sea-captain, died in a distant land, and from that time his mother lived in complete seclu sion. Thus home influences as well as an inborn disinclination for action made Hawthorne something of a recluse. The happiest time of his childhood was a period spent on Lake Sebago, in Maine, from which he was sent back to Salem to complete his preparation for college. At seventeen he entered Bowdoin, where he made only an average record, his main interests being not in his studies but in the reading in all fields of literature that he carried on by himself. For twelve years after he left college (1825-1837) he lived in the utmost seclusion, reading much and writing much, but destroying the greater part of his compositions. He saw little of his mother and sisters dur ing this time, had no intimate friends, and published little. It was a period of self-training not unlike that of Milton at Horton. He sent a collection of seven tales to various publishers, who promptly returned them. Largely with his own funds he published "Fanshawe" in 1828, but afterward destroyed the greater part of the edition. "The Gentle Boy," and three other tales appeared in an annual in 1832, anonymously, and a few other tales appeared in the same way in succeeding years. Thus he pre pared the way for "Twice-Told Tales," in 1838. Though its circulation was small, Hawthorne was encouraged by the favorable comments it called forth and came out of his hermit-like seclusion, got a position in the Boston Custom House, fell in love with Sophia Peabody, and in 1841 joined a communistic ex periment at Brook Farm. In 1847 he married and went to live, for three years, in the Old Manse at Concord. Here he came to know Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, and helped to make Concord a community of authors. A second series of "Twice-Told Tales," appeared in 1842; "Mosses from an Old Manse," in 1846, and "The Scarlet Letter" in 1850. Meantime, President Polk appointed him to the custom house at Salem, 1846. By 1851 he had moved again, this time to the Berkshires, where he wrote "The House of the Seven Gables," (1851), and two collections of tales for children, "The Wonder Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." President Pierce, who had been his class mate at Bowdoin, appointed him consul at Liverpool, and before his return to America he spent some time on the continent. In Italy he planned "The Marble Faun," which was written while he was still abroad and appeared in 1860. Various other romances were planned and partly written, but his health failed rapidly after his return to Concord in 1860, and he died May 19, 1864.
Besides his tales and romances, Hawthorne left voluminous note-books, written in America and abroad, which constitute a record of his reading and meditation. These afford valuable clues
to his view of life, show the germs out of which his masterpieces grew, and illus trate the way in which he used simple incidents as symbols of truth. His material comes most often from legends and incidents of colonial New England. In the "Twice-Told Tales" we and simple descriptive sketches, which have little narrative but suggest types and symbols of experience, as yet without interrreta tion. We also find stories and legends of early colonial history, without signifi cance except as simple narratives, but giving promise of the deeper study of Puritan character that was to follow. A third group is made up of tales, main ly legendary, which have symbolic or allegorical meaning, such as "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Wedding Knell," "The Lily's Quest." The pursuit of happiness is an illusion; there is a veil that separates one personality from another. In such a tale as "The May pole of Merrymount," two racial ideals, the pagan tradition of old England and the Puritan tradition, are brought into collision, the more dramatic because the setting is the primeval forest of New England, with an untamed nature, the beasts of the forest, and the Indians as a background.
Hawthorne's work suggests the al legory of medieval and Elizabethan times. He uses symbols constantly as a means to perception of spiritual truth. The riddle of the soul's growth is his theme, in "The Minister's Black Veil" and in the series of the great romances, —in Dimmesdale, in Pyncheon, in the Faun. These symbols he worked out with exquisite skill. He described him self as a man sitting by the wayside of life and looking upon it as if under en chantment. Sitting thus, he observes the pilgrimage of the life of man and paints it for us with a careful realism that is also conscious of the spiritual truth which these realities reveal to the seeing eye.
HAY, the stems and leaves of grasses and other plants cut for fodder, dried in the sun, and stored usually in stacks. The time most suitable for mowing grass intended for hay is that in which the saccharine matter is most abundant in the plants, viz., when the grass is in full flower. For the operation of mowing, dry weather, and, if possible, that in which sunshine prevails, is chosen. Care must be taken to avoid haymaking either under a scorching sun or during the prevalence of rain, and the heaps should never be opened in the morning till the disappearance of the dew. On large farms the work is performed by haymak ing machines in conjunction with other agricultural implements.
The total hay crop in the United States for 1920 was estimated at 108, 233,000 tons, with a farm value of 5'1,809,162,000, and the total acreage at 72,830,000 acres. The greatest hay pro ducing States were New York, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, Kansas, Penn sylvania, Iowa, and California.