Her sister Elizabeth educated Sophia, focusing on geography, science, literature and both American and European history; eventually, she learned to read in Latin, French, Greek and Hebrew; she knew some German, as well.

[5] After meeting her, Nathaniel wrote the tale "Edward Randolph’s Portrait", which included an artist character inspired by Sophia Peabody named Alice Vane.

[8] A wedding was scheduled for June 27, 1842, but was postponed when Sophia fell ill.[9] On July 9, 1842, five years after first meeting, she and Nathaniel were married at 13 West Street in Boston, the Peabody bookstore where Margaret Fuller held some of her "conversations".

The next day, Hawthorne wrote to his sister, Louisa: "We are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier; but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point.

"[12] Together the couple etched their impressions of their new married life in the glass of a window in the study using Sophia's diamond ring: Man's accidents are God's purposes.

[16] Sophia wrote in her journal, "It was a great happiness to be able to put her to my breast immediately and I thanked Heaven I was able to have the privilege of nursing her.

[21] In March, 1846, Sophia moved to 77 Carver Street in Boston to be closer to family and Dr. William Wesselhœft while pregnant with her second child.

His father wrote of the news to a sister, "A small troglodyte made his appearance here at ten minutes to six o'clock this morning, who claims to be your nephew".

[23] The family moved to Lenox, Massachusetts, and it was there, in a red farmhouse they rented, that Sophia gave birth to her third child, Rose.

Two months prior to giving birth, Sophia claimed she instinctively knew it would be a girl and chose the name Rose.

"[29] Nathaniel Hawthorne died in May 1864, and Sophia was given the news by her sister, Elizabeth Peabody, who had been informed by Franklin Pierce.

[30] Sophia wrote about her husband's death to Annie Fields: "My darling has gone over that Sapphire sea, and these grand soft waves are messages from his Eternal Rest.

After her husband's death, Sophia threatened to sue publisher James T. Fields for not paying enough in royalties from book sales.

Fields blamed his recently deceased business partner William Ticknor for promising "to pay the highest rate of copyright it ever paid" but that no written contract existed.

When the grave sites were in need of costly repair, it was suggested the remains be moved to the Hawthorne family plot in Concord, Massachusetts.

Hawthorne's art began to evolve steadily after studying drawing in 1824; she further explored this discipline under the tutelage of Francis Graeter, the illustrator of Lydia Maria Child's Girl's Own Book.

I have always determined not to force the creative power but wait till it mastered me and now I feel as if the time had come and such freedom and revelry of spirit does it bring!

[40] The story was republished with Sophia's illustration as The Gentle Boy: A Thrice Told Tale in December 1838,[41] subsidized by a Salem hostess named Susan Burley.