Since the covers in the newly-relaunched John Harvard Library consist of (rather haunting) portraits of the books' authors done by award-winning illustrator Robert Carter, the inclusion of five works by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the series presents a question of how to depict the man in a way that we can distinguish the books from one another. The decision was made to go with a unique portrait for each instance, showing Hawthorne at various stages of his life.
Thus, on the cover of The Blithedale Romance, we see a young, mustache-less Nathaniel:
While The Scarlet Letter sports a slightly-aged version:
And The House of Seven Gables gives us a portrait of the novelist as an rather elderly man:
There are two more Hawthorne volumes planned--Selected Stores, coming this fall, and The Marble Faun, due Spring 2011. Not sure yet what Carter's going to come up with now that we've traversed the life cycle, so to speak. But his covers have been winning awards so it's bound to be good.