Throughout his richly varied literary career, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) wrote compelling short stories whose appeal has proven evergreen. Indeed his first important publication, long before the arrival of "The Scarlet Letter," was an 1837 collection of stories, "Twice-Told Tales," which brought the New England writer immediate fame and high praise from no less a storyteller than Edgar Allan Poe. Another collection, "Mosses from an Old Manse,"...