George Parsons Lathrop


George Parsons Lathrop was an American poet, novelist, and newspaper editor. He married Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter, Rose Hawthorne.

Life

George was born August 25, 1851, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was physician George Alfred Lathrop, his mother was Frances Maria Lathrop, and his brother was Francis Lathrop.
George was educated in New York City and Dresden, Germany, when he returned to New York and decided on a literary career. Going to England on a visit he was married in London, September 11, 1871, to Rose Hawthorne, the second daughter and youngest child of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In 1875, he became associate editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and remained in that position two years, leaving it to edit the Boston Courier in 1879. He worked on several books for Roberts Brothers, including Afterglow and Somebody Else, and he edited A Masque of Poets as part of their "No Name" series.
In 1879 George purchased Rose's former house, called "The Wayside", in Concord, Massachusetts, and resided there until 1883 when he moved to New York City. His contributions to the periodical and daily press were varied and voluminous. In 1883 he founded the American Copyright League, which assisted in securing an international copyright law.
George was also one of the founders of the Catholic Summer School of America. He and Rose converted to Catholicism in March 1891.

Death

George Parsons Lathrop died on April 19, 1898, in New York. After his death Rose, who had become Mother Mary Alphonsa, organized a community of Dominican tertiaries, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who took charge of two cancer hospitals at New York.

Selected publication