Biographical Stories

Biographical Stories is one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s collections of short biographical sketches for young readers, working in the educational fiction for children tradition that he engaged with across portions of his career. Hawthorne wrote a number of biographical pieces and historical sketches aimed at young readers, with the cumulative output providing accessible introductions to the figures from American and European history that his fiction more famously engaged with at adult length.

The biographical sketch as a literary form was particularly important in nineteenth century American letters and especially in nineteenth century children’s literature. Without the kind of academic biographical infrastructure that twentieth century universities would later develop, the biographical sketches that established writers contributed provided the main accessible biographical literature that young readers had access to. Hawthorne’s contributions in this corner of the wider literature shaped how generations of American children encountered the historical figures that the sketches covered.

Hawthorne’s biographical pieces are written in his characteristic prose style, with the careful observation, the attention to small details, and the willingness to let an essay tip into a tale and back again that distinguishes his shorter work. The pieces are more direct than his major fiction in their engagement with historical material but they share the same underlying moral and intellectual seriousness that distinguishes his major novels.

For families with young children interested in introducing them to historical biography through accessible nineteenth century writing, Biographical Stories is a useful resource. For students of nineteenth century American children’s literature, of Hawthorne’s wider catalogue, or of the development of biographical writing for young readers, the collection is essential.