Nathaniel Hawthorne was born at Salem, Mass., on July 4th, 1804. He led a shy and rather somber life with little encouragement to write, yet not wholly uncongenial in view of his temperament. His life is reflected in his Twice-Told Tales and other short stories, the product of his first literary period. In these stories, his understanding of men and women was displayed with great subtlety.He was forty-six years old when The Scarlet Letter appeared. It is considered his best work, and is a good demonstration of his unique and imaginative mind. In 1850, the year The Scarlet Letter appeared, he began The House of the Seven Gables, a later romance or prose-tragedy of the Puritan-America as he knew it missing art and the joy of life.