Julian Hawthorne
Julian Hawthorne (1846–1934) was an American author and journalist, best known as the son of celebrated writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he spent his childhood traveling across Europe with his family, which influenced his literary perspectives. He married Mary Albertina Amelung in 1870 and had nine children. Educated at Harvard University, he briefly worked as a hydrographic engineer before turning to writing. His first novel, *Bressant*, published in 1873, garnered more acclaim in England than in the U.S., partly due to the inevitable comparisons to his father's work. Despite facing challenges, including a conviction for mail fraud that led to a year in prison, Hawthorne continued to write, producing novels, biographies, and journalistic pieces. His later works, such as *The Subterranean Brotherhood*, critiqued American society, reflecting his complex views on topics like the judicial system. Hawthorne's literary legacy remains intertwined with the influence of his father's reputation while also establishing his unique voice in American literature.
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Julian Hawthorne
Writer
- Born: June 22, 1846
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: July 14, 1934
- Place of death: California
Biography
Julian Hawthorne, who also wrote under the pseudonym Judith Hollinshed, was born in 1846, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of writer Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Hawthorne. His father was the author of such classics as The House of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Scarlet Letter (1850). Young Hawthorne spent much of his childhood traveling with his parents and two sisters to England, Germany, and Italy. He married Mary Albertina Amelung in 1870, and they had nine children, two of whom died in infancy.
Hawthorne attended Harvard University and studied engineering in Germany, and he was a hydrographic engineer for the city of New York from 1870 to 1872. He then served as a staff reviewer for the Spectator, an English journal, for seven years. He was convicted of mail fraud for falsifying shares of stock in Hawthorne Silver and Iron Mines, of which he was president, and spent a year in the Atlanta State Penitentiary. From around 1920 to 1934, he was a journalist for the Pasadena Star News.
Hawthorne began writing stories to supplement his salary as an engineer. His early stories sold easily, partly because of his father’s reputation. His first novel, Bressant, was published in 1873. Bressant enjoyed more critical success in England than in the United States, where reviewers were quick to compare the novel to those of his father. Hawthorne later wrote in Confessions and Criticisms that “some surprise and indignation were expressed that the son of his father should presume to be a novelist. This sentiment, whatever its bearing upon me, has undoubtedly been of service to my critics: it gives them something to write about. A disquisition upon the mantle of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and an analysis of the differences and similarities between him and his successor, generally fill so much of a notice as to enable the reviewer to dismiss the book itself very briefly.”
In 1874, his second novel, Idolatry: A Romance, was published. Critics pointed out its similarities to his father’s gothic romances. The novelist Henry James wrote in the Atlantic Monthly that the resemblances brought out “the feeling of a broad burlesque of his father’s exquisite fantasies.”
Hawthorne wrote a biography of his father, Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife: A Biography, which was published in 1884. He subsequently published Hawthorne and His Circle, which explained the good and bad aspects of living in his father’s shadow. Following his year in prison, Hawthorne wrote The Subterranean Brotherhood, which attacked American society, particularly the judicial system. In it, he wrote, “There is dry rot or something worse everywhere; and it is difficult to believe that anything is gained by it either for the convict or for the country.”
In addition to his novels and collections of short stories, Hawthorne wrote several history books and edited a collection of his father’s work and other literary anthologies. He died in 1934.