Poverty in “The Minister's Black Veil” and in the Life of Hawthorne How many readers considered the utter simplicity of the short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister's Black Veil,” could it be an expression or reflection of the utter poverty of Hawthorne's life? The aim of this essay is to clarify this question. Hawthorne's impoverishment probably began with the early death of his father and continued until 1857. He had no money for a college education. Gloria C. Erlich in "The Divided Artist and His Uncles" states that "Robert Manning made key decisions in the lives of the Hawthorne children and is well known as the uncle who sent Hawthorne to college" (35). After graduating from Bowdoin College, Hawthorne spent twelve years in his bedroom at home in an intense effort to make something of himself literaryly. The Norton Anthology: American Literature states: Hawthorne's years between 1825 and 1837 fascinated his biographers and critics. Hawthorne himself was careful to propagate the idea that he had lived as a hermit who left his upstairs room only for nightly walks and barely communicated, even with his mother and sisters (547). Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty and E. Hudson Long in "The Social Critique of a Public Man" consider his poverty a determining influence in his life: "...a young man absorbed in historical study and learning the craft "A writer is not particularly homosexual if he does not seek society or marriage, especially if he is poor" (47-48). Fame is slow to come for the author, neither is prosperity. Clarice Swisher in "Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography" details the unfortunate financial uncertainty that...... middle of paper...... Press, 1996. Erlich, Gloria C. "The Divided Artist and His Uncles." » In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” 1835. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.htmlJames, Henry. Hawthorn. http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/nhhj1.htmlLewis, RWB “Back in Time: Hawthorne.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by AN Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al. New York: WW Norton and Co., 1995. Swisher, Clarice. “Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography.” In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.