Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of America's greatest writers, wrote four short stories about New Hampshire's White Mountains that are an important part of the literary history of that region--The Ambitions Guest, Sketches from Memory, The Great Carbuncle and The Great Stone Face.

Hawthorne, a student of New England history, incorporated into his writings a mythical America that portrayed a certain history, spirit, and romance of this young country--a spirit and romance that the reader will find in Tales of the White Mountains.

Chronicled in the Historical Epilogue is the 1826 Willey Disaster--the source of not only Hawthorne's The Ambitious Guest but also other historical, literary, and artistic contributions to the history and culture of the White Mountains.