Hawthorne: Science, Progress, and Human Nature 

A series of critical essays accompanied by annotated stories

Several of the best stories by the great American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) touch on the moral meaning of modern science. During the next two years, The New Atlantis will be publishing a series of essays devoted to Hawthorne’s stories about science, technology, and progress. With each essay, we will publish online a critical edition of the corresponding Hawthorne story. And we are pleased that each story will be accompanied by an illustration by Elliott Banfield.

To learn more about Hawthorne and our series, please read our introductory essay, “Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Spirit of Science.”

A note on the critical editions: The text of the Hawthorne stories presented in this series will generally be based on the final editions published during the author’s lifetime. These editions will keep intact the original spelling and punctuation, except when the source text is obviously mistaken. Paragraphs are numbered for the purposes of classroom discussion, and all annotations are our own, unless otherwise indicated.

Stories	Essays
Series Introduction	“Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Spirit of Science” by the Editors (Fall 2009-Winter 2010)
“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”	“Wasting the Water of Life” by Kevin Laskowski (Fall 2009-Winter 2010)
“The New Adam and Eve”	“Artful by Nature” by Charles T. Rubin (Spring 2010)
“Ethan Brand,” “Earth’s Holocaust,” and “Fire Worship”	“From Hearth-Fires to Hell-Fires” by Diana Schaub (Summer 2010)
“Rappaccini’s Daughter”	“The Last Temptation of Science” by Algis Valiunas (Winter 2011)
“The Artist of the Beautiful”	“A Far Other Butterfly” by Wilfred M. McClay (Fall 2011)
“The Hall of Fantasy”	“The Possibility of Progress” by Jeremy Kessler (Fall 2012)