Devotions upon Emergent Occasions is a 1624 prose wo rk by the English writer John Donne, who dedicated it to the future King Charles I. It is a series of reflections that were written as Donne recovered from a serious illness, believed to be either typhus or relapsing fever. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the great American author, cunningly, informatively, and entertainingly recounts several stories in American history. each story is told by a grandfather to his grandchildren. (Goodreads)