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Nathaniel Hawthorne's Grave | |
| The famous novelist's grave on Authors' Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is a place of pilgrimage for devoted readers, as is that of his wife and beloved companion, Sophia. | ||
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Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem MA, as was his future wife Sophia Amalia Peabody [Hawthorne] (1809-1871). They lived only one street apart as children. Nathaniel grew up in Maine, however, and went to Bowdoin College. After their marriage in 1842, Nathaniel and Sophia moved into Concord's Old Manse. They later lived for years at The Wayside, near Orchard House on Lexington Road in Concord.
Nathaniel died (perhaps of stomach cancer) in 1864 while on an outing in New Hampshire's White Mountains with former US President Franklin Pierce, a Bowdoin classmate. After her husband's death, Sophia Hawthorne moved with her son to Germany, then to England, where she died in 1871. She and her daughter Una were interred at London's Kensal Green. In June 2006 their remains were brought to Concord and re-interred next to Nathaniel's on Authors Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
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Above, Nathaniel Hawthorne's grave on Authors Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord MA. The slip of paper atop the stone reads "You have enriched my life." Below, the Hawthorne
family plot, with memorial stones for Sophia
and Una.
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