Nathaniel Hawthorne Society
Nathaniel Hawthorne by Cephas Thompson (1854)

About the Society

Hawthorne Society Officers

President: Thomas R. Mitchell, Texas A&M University
President-Elect: Rosemary Fisk, Samford University
Secretary: Richard Kopley, Pennsylvania State University
Treasurer: Leland S. Person, University of Cincinnati

Editor, Nathaniel Hawthorne Review: Monika Elbert, Montclair State University

Advisory Board (elected)

(Last year of 3-year term in parentheses)

David Greven (2014), Connecticut College
Ellen Weinauer (2014), University of Southern Mississippi
Samuel Chase Coale (2012), Wheaton College
Jason Courtemanche (2012), University of Connecticut
Robert Milder (2012), Washington University
Magnus Ullen (2012), Karlstad University
David B. Kesterson (Life), University of North Texas

Hawthorne Statue, Salem, Mass. (photo by Lee Person)
Background on the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society

PURPOSE

The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society is dedicated to the study and appreciation of the life and works of the author. A nonprofit educational organization, the Society--through its annual meetings, conferences, and review-- provides a medium of communication among scholars and expands the possibilities for shared responses to Hawthorne's achievement.


HISTORY

Co-founders David B. Kesterson and C.E. Frazer Clark, Jr., proposed a meeting of interested Hawthorne scholars for New York City on December 27, 1974, at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention. Some seventy persons gathered for the founding meeting, where planning began for the Society's first symposium at Bowdoin College in the fall of 1976.


PAST PRESIDENTS

David B. Kesterson, 1975-76
C.E. Frazer Clark, Jr, 1977-78
Arlin Turner, 1979-80
Rita K. Gollin, 1981-82
Joseph Flibbert, 1983-84
John L. Idol, Jr., 1985-86
Thomas Woodson, 1987-88
Lea V.Bertani Newman, 1989-90
Gloria C. Erlich, 1991-92
Leland S. Person, 1993-94
T. Walter Herbert, 1995-96
Larry J. Reynolds, 1997-98
Robert K. Martin, 1999-2000
Millicent Bell, 2001-02
Richard Millington, 2003-04
Samuel Chase Coale, 2005-06
Brenda Wineapple, 2007-08
Richard Kopley, 2009-10

MEETINGS

Chronology of Past Meeting Dates and Places

The Society meets annually at the MLA convention and again in late May with the American Literature Association. At both meetings, veteran and fresh voices share their findings, views, and insights about Hawthorne and his writing. Inquiries about presenting papers should be addressed to President Brenda Wineapple .

Hawthorne Society Secretary Rosemary Fisk (left) and Past-President Robert K. Martin (right) contemplate a centaur at the Capitoline Museum during the 1998 summer meeting in Rome.

The Society's biennial summer meetings have been held in places important in Hawthorne's life and works: in Salem, Boston, Cambridge, Concord, Pittsfield-Lenox, and North Adams, Massachusetts; in Brunswick and Raymond, Maine, in Rome, Italy, and at Oxford (UK). These meetings offer tours, special productions and exhibits, invited lectures, and keynote speakers. The Society has also held joint meetings with such groups as the Melville Society, the Henry James Society, the Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe Societies.

ENDOWMENT FUND

Since its founding, the Society has undertaken several projects, including the publishing a Hawthorne calendar and collaborating with the Peabody Essex Institute to publish papers read at two of its conferences. It has given certificates of merit to Manning Hawthorne, Hyatt Waggoner, Neal Smith, Edward Stevenson, and Art Monke in recognition of their contribution to Hawthorne studies. The Society established an endowment fund in 1990 to generate support for special projects. Donations to the fund are tax-deductible.