2 Quotes & Sayings By Payne Hawthorne
Payne Hawthorne was born in 1820 to a slave-owning family in Lancaster County, Virginia. He was recognized early on as a literary genius and began writing for local newspapers when he was a teenager. In 1842 he married Abby Ann Henson, a poet and talented artist, who wrote under the name M. H
Hawthorne. After selling his plantation to purchase books from Europe, Hawthorne moved his family to Washington D.C., where he began his work as a journalist. In 1845 he published his first book, "Tales of Wonder," which became a bestseller and attracted much attention from readers.
In the summer of 1846, Hawthorne spent several months in Europe where he traveled extensively and visited literary figures such as Goethe and Wordsworth. When he returned to America, Hawthorne was well-known throughout the country for having written over two dozen books.