"Ethan Brand-A Chapter from an Abortive Romance" is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and first published by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields in 1852 in The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales, the author's final collection of short stories. Hawthorne originally planned a lengthy work about Brand, but completed only this piecer. Hawthorne's inspiration was a lime kiln he saw burning while climbing Mount Greylock. It has been suggested that Brand was based on Herman Melville, but the two writers had yet to meet when the story was published.