Nathaniel Hawthorne (4 July 1804 - 19 May 1864) was an American author, many of whose works, like those of H. P. Lovecraft, centre around his native New England. Lovecraft praised his novel The House of the Seven Gables as "New England's greatest contribution to weird literature" in the essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature", and also discussed Hawthorne's role in the genre.
According to An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, compiled by leading scholars S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, several of Lovecraft's stories drew inspiration from those of Hawthorne. These include:
- "The Dreams in the Witch-House" (the unfinished novel Septimius Felton)
- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (The Marble Faun, "The Great Stone Face")
- "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (The House of the Seven Gables)
- "The Outsider" ("Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man")
The writings of Lovecraft's friend and contemporary Robert E. Howard have also been favourably compared to Hawthorne's work.