Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a sea captain, and was educated at Bowdoin College, where he met his lifelong friend Franklin Pierce. He became one of the most famous living American authors. He died in Plymouth, New Hampshire four days earlier. He was buried on a sunny and calm day at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, in Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson, Longfellow, Louis Agassiz, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, were among the pallbearers. (By John Osborne)