Wednesday, June 28, 2006

"Digging Up Bones"

No, I'm not talking about the country song! Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife and daughter were disinterred from their graves in England and reunited with Hawthorne in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Massachusetts. I have read that Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was inspired by one of the wives of Stephen Bachiler (or Batchelder), one of my ancestors. Disclaimer: The alleged "Hester Prynne" was not my maternal descendant, and I have not been able to verify this claim. This article claims that Hawthorne's own wife's independence can be seen in Hester. Maybe he had multiple inspirations for Hester?

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