Nathaniel Hawthorne

For the past few days we've learned about transcendentalist thinkers such as Thoreau and Emerson. In my believe, they subscribes entirely to the philosophy, but Hawthorne is different. Although he believed in the philosophy and even lived 6 months in a community the transcendentalists established, he did not follow the philosophy entirely. His life was very interesting as I read today's homework. I'm excited to see what The Scarlet Letter has in store for the class since the author amazes me. He was in politics, helped establish the American short story, and changed the way society viewed Puritanism. I also had a little curiosity. As I read the packet, it stated that Hawthorne injured his foot and had to use crutches for two years. That is pretty unusual for me since I have never heard of anybody using crutches for more than a year. Did anybody else catch that?