George Parsons Lathrop

George Parsons Lathrop (25 August 1851, Honolulu, Hawaii - 19 April 1898, New York) was a poet, novelist and brother of Francis Lathrop. He was educated at New York 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, 11 September 1871, to Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 1875 he became associate editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and remained in that position two years, leaving it for newspaper work in Boston and New York. His contributions to the periodical and daily Press were varied and voluminous. In 1883 he founded the American Copyright League, which finally secured the international copyright law. He was also one of the founders of the Catholic Summer School of America. He and his wife were received into the Roman Catholic Church in New York in March 1891. After his death his widow, as Mother M. Alphonsa, organized a community of Dominican tertiaries, The Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer Patients, who took charge of two cancer hospitals at New York. Among his published works are: Rose and Rose-tree (1875), poems; A Study of Hawthorne (1876); Afterglow (1876), a novel; Spanish Vistas (1883), a work on travel; Newport (1884), a novel; Dreams and Days (1892), poems; A Story of Courage (1894), centenary history of the Visitation Convent, Georgetown, D.C. He edited (1883) a complete, and the standard, edition of Hawthorne's works, and adapted The Scarlet Letter for Walter Damrosch's opera of that title, which was produced at New York in 1896.

George Parsons Lathrop - Author, Son-in-law of Nathaniel Hawthorne "LATHROP, George Parsons, author, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 25, 1851; eldest son of Dr. George Alfred and Frances Maria (Smith) Lathrop; grandson of Alfred and Margaret (Parsons) Hubbard Lathrop, and of James and Hannah (Pratt) Smith; great grandson of William and Cynthia (Elderkin) Lathrop and of Maj.-Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons (q.v.); great2 grandson of Jeremiah and Lydia (Armstrong) Lathrop; and a descendant from John Lathrop, who came from Kent, England, where he was pastor of the first Independent church in London, and settled in Scituate, Mass., in 1634, later removing to Barnstable. Dr. George Alfred Lathrop was U.S. hospital surgeon at Honolulu, Hawaii, 1849-51, and was appointed U.S. consul there in 1851, returning to New York in 1858. George Parsons Lathrop was educated in the private schools of Oswego and in New York city, 1858-67, and at Dresden, Germany, 1867-70. He entered Columbia law school in 1870, and was employed in the law office of William M. Evarts in New York city. Deciding to devote himself to literature he again went abroad, and was married, Sept. 11, 1871, in St. Peter's church, Chelsea, England, to Rose, daughter of Nathaniel and Sophia (Peabody) Hawthorne. He was assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly, 1875-77; editor of the Boston Courier, 1877-79, and editor of the Providence Visitor. In 1879 he purchased Nathaniel Hawthorne's house, "the Wayside," in Concord, Mass., where he resided until 1883, when he removed to New York city, and subsequently to New London, Conn. In 1881 he visited Spain and the articles prepared there for Harper's Magazine were subsequently published in book form. He founded the American Copyright League, was its secretary, 1883-85, and promoted the passage of the copyright law. He was a promoter and trustee of the Catholic Summer schools at New London, Conn., and at Plattsburg, N.Y.; a supporter of the Paulist inauguration of the Apostolate of the Press in 1895, and a member of the Papyrus club of Boston; the Authors and Players clubs of New York; the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Revolution; the St. John's Literary society of New London, and an honorary member of the John Boyle O'Reilly Reading Circle of Boston. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by St. John's college, Fordham, N.Y., in 1892. He is the author of: Rose and Rooftree (1875); A Study of Hawthorne (1876); Afterglow (1877); Somebody Else (1878); Presidential Pills (1880); An Echo of Passion (1882); In the Distance (1882); Spanish Vistas (1883); History of the Union League of Philadelphia (1883); Newport (1884): True and other Stories (1884); Behind Time (1886); Gettysburg, a Battle Ode (1888); Two Sides of a Story (1889); Would You Kill Him ? (1889); The Letter of Credit (with W. H. Rideing, 1890); Dreams and Days (1892). He edited A Masque of Poets (1878), and contributed to its contents, and an edition of Hawthorne's works, for which he wrote a brief biography and introductory notes in 1883. He also adapted a dramatization of Tennyson's "Elaine" in blank verse, which was successfully staged and produced in Boston, New York and Chicago. With Rose Hawthorne Lathrop he prepared: A Story of Courage: Annals of the Georgetown Convent of Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the MS. records (1894). He died in New York city, April 19, 1898." The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume VI