Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist, a dark romantic, and short story writer. Our Old Home is a collection of essays, based on Hawthorne's stay in England from 1853 to 1857 as American Consul in Liverpool. It was first published in the form of a series of travel papers for "The Atlantic Monthly". In his essays Hawthorne aimed to show us the splendors of London, and the horrors of the poverty that so many suffered.