NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE: THE AMERICAN YEARS (499 pp.)Robert Cantwell Rinehart ($6).
For the first time since Henry James put his hand to it, in 1879, the task of writing Hawthorne's biography has been undertaken by a born novelist of distinction. James wrote in England, in all the panoply of his handsome prose, and with a good deal of Old World "side"; but he did not have much to add to the story of Hawthorne's life. He knew it, and called his book a "critical essay."
Robert Cant well's portrayal of Hawthorne is superior to James's in warmth and scope; it is free of James's...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
