Author Description

While he had written many short stories before, "Fanshawe" was Nathaniel Hawthorne's first attempt at writing a novel. The novel is based on his experiences at Bowdoin College in the early 1820s and Hawthorne published the novel himself anonymously in 1828. A commercial failure, Nathaniel Hawthorne's contempt for his first novel can be seen in his efforts to destroy every copy of it. All unsold copies were burned and later all copies that were sold that could be obtained met the same fate. Twelve years after Hawthorne's death a copy was discovered and finally republished.