Nathaniel Hawthorne's sketches, as distinguished from his tales, fall into three main types: the essay-sketch, the sketch-proper, and the vignette-sketch. A definition of these works includes a brief discussion of their inception, source, and development, and a study of the individual pieces as representative of types within each of the three main divisions. A consideration of the sketches from their inception through their final form reveals a great deal of the formative process of some of Hawthorne's ideas of literature and of the development of specific techniques to cope with his themes. A study of the sketches as a group and individually provides a clearer basis for a study of Hawthorne's other works.