American classics author united with wife

CONCORD, Mass., June 27 (UPI) -- Nathaniel Hawthorne died in 1864 and was buried in a Concord, Mass., cemetery, but his devoted wife and daughter were interred in London until now.

On Monday, the remains of Sophia and Una Hawthorne were buried beside Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote "The Scarlet Letter."

Sophia moved to Germany after her husband's death and then to London where she died in 1871, the New York Times reported. Both Sophia and her daughter, Una, were buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne were the closest of partners. Their son, Julian, wrote of his father in 1884, "The life of a man happily married cannot fail to be influenced by the character and conduct of his wife."

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, an order of nuns founded by the couple's younger daughter, Rose, recently paid $15,000 of their living expenses to move the remains to Massachusetts.

Imogen Howe, 67, Nathaniel and Sophia's great-great granddaughter, called the event "overwhelming."

"They know now in spirit that everyone is reunited," Howe said.

The remains were taken in a horse-drawn carriage thought to have carried Nathaniel Hawthorne's body to the cemetery 142 years ago.