Salem Is My Dwelling Place
"Psychologically probing (but free of all jargon), Miller's elegantly written study gives us a fresh, sympathetic picture of an immensely complex, repressed man."—Library Journal
"The best, and most thorough, biography yet of Hawthorne, setting the standard against which all others will be measured."—Kirkus Reviews
"A rewarding new biography."—Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Miller has done a much better job than any of his predecessors in making Hawthorne consistent and interesting."—Boston Sunday Herald
"Miller's evocation of Hawthorne's early sense of eviscerating loss is convincing…It is the grace of his book to approach this sanctuary of Hawthorne's heart not with indignation at its fastness, but with the decency not to barge in."—New York Times Book Review
"Salem Is My Dwelling Place is an essential resource for serious readers of Hawthorne."—American Studies
“This is a masterful work, wholly satisfying.”—Library Journal
“Mirroring the psychological complexity of Hawthorn’s fiction, this superbly illuminating biography teases out the secrets of the writer’s anguished soul.”—Publishers Weekly
“No other biographer has drawn Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character so fully, complexly, or vividly as Edwin Miller. . . . The best biography of this most subtle and elusive of the American romantic writers—the most detailed and comprehensive, the sharpest in understanding, the deepest in sympathy.”—Kenneth Silverman
“This is an indispensable addition to the library of Hawthorne scholarship.”—Raymona Hull
In one of his public disavowals of autobiography, Nathaniel Hawthorne informed his readers that external traits "hide the man, instead of displaying him," directing them instead to "look through the whole range of his fictitious characters, good and evil, in order to detect any of his essential traits." In this multidimensional biography of America's first great storyteller, Edwin Haviland Miller answers Hawthorne's challenge and reveals the inner landscapes of this modest, magnetic man who hid himself in his fiction. Thomas Woodson hails Miller's account as "the best biography of this most elusive of American authors."