Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning.

Hawthorne struggled in vain to complete this fragment of a romance for more than twenty years. Based on an old English legend of a bloody footprint, it illuminates many of the themes Hawthorne touched on in his greatest works, as well as his methods of composition. It was published posthumously in 1883.