Who wrote "The Scarlet Letter", published in 1850?

The story behind the answer

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter (1850), a cornerstone of American Dark Romanticism set in Puritan New England. Its story of Hester Prynne, condemned to wear a scarlet “A” for adultery, explores sin, guilt, hypocrisy, and redemption—preoccupations shaped by Hawthorne’s own family history, including an ancestor involved in the Salem witch trials. Think “Hawthorne = thorny moral questions and the scarlet ‘A’.”

To avoid confusion: James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Last of the Mohicans, Washington Irving penned “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and Catherine Maria Sedgwick authored Hope Leslie. Remember: the “Haw” in Hawthorne pairs with “Hester” and “Her ‘A’,” linking author, heroine, and emblematic letter.