Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was descended from a judge at the Salem witch trials and added the “w” to his surname, it is generally thought, to put distance between himself and that ancestor. The Scarlet Letter (1850) is less interested in the adultery it is famous for than in concealment: the woman whose shame is public survives it, and the man who hides his is destroyed from inside. Quotes are cited by chapter.