So I don't see anything left for me other than being an author" (European Graduate School EGS). By choosing to be an author, he felt he was responding to a literary vocation. Nathaniel's original last name was Hathorne. He added a “w” in his early twenties to distance himself from his ancestors and their dark legacy. Even as he sought to distinguish himself from his family, Hawthorne still believed that all men and women could have an error of judgment and slide into sin and self-destruction. After college, Hawthorne spent about six months at Brook Farm, an experimental community where all the people shared work and money. However, he did not share the same hope and optimism as the Transcendentalist participants who were at Brook Farm. Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody in 1842 and lived in Concord. They had three children named Una, Rose and Julian. Throughout his life Hawthorne worked as a surveyor, author and diplomat in England. He died in his sleep in 1864. The “Minister's Black Veil” is one of Hawthorne's short stories. The setting is in a Puritan town in Massachusetts in the 18th century. Pastor Hooper arrives at the Milford meetinghouse on a bright, sunny Sunday morning with a black veil covering his eyes. The townspeople immediately start gossiping and wondering why she is wearing a headscarf. The Parson preaches a sermon on secret sin and it is considered one of the best sermons his congregation has ever heard. His congregation immediately leaves the meetinghouse at the conclusion of the service. The townspeople continue to gossip and wonder whether Parson Hooper has gone mad or perhaps is trying to hide a shameful sin. She appears again in two important ceremonies still wearing the black veil. He… in the middle of the paper… discards the very thing that comes to inform their work most strongly” (Rahn). Hawthorne's writings helped shift the balance of power in English literature towards the United States and away from the British Isles. Hawthorne's new American literature was bold, fresh, and young. The effect that Nathaniel Hawthorne's writings had on American literature will always be recognized and remembered. Even though he saw the world as full of doubts and errors and believed that everyone had a dark side, his writings still rank him as one of America's greatest writers. His writings focused primarily on personal guilt and the difficulty of spiritual and moral choices. He believed that everyone had a dark side. Hawthorne had a major impact on the 19th century literary world through his legacy and beliefs, his short story "The Minister's Black Veil" and its effect on the Transcendental movement..