Literary career and marriage
Once in New York, Rose Hawthorne and George Lathrop began writing short stories, articles and book reviews. Hawthorne became a favorite of the New York literary scene, due to her charm and wit as well as her beauty. Lathrop was hired as an associate editor of the Atlantic Monthly and the couple moved back to Massachusetts. In 1876, the Lathrops had a son, Francis. Hawthorne serialized her novel Miss Dilletante in the Boston Courier in 1878, with Lathrop serving as her editor.
In early 1879, the couple purchased her family's former home in Concord, The Wayside, with borrowed funds. In 1881, Francis died of diphtheria at age five. Soon after his death, they returned to New York. Lazarus died from cancer in 1887. In 1883, Julian planned to publish Dr. Grimshawe's Secret, allegedly a manuscript left unfinished by their father. However, Hawthorne suspected Julian of forgery or perpetrating a hoax.
New York was not good for Lathrop's health, so they built a new house in New London, Connecticut, in 1887.One of Rose's closest friends was the poet Emma Lazarus, whom she had befriended in 1881. Lazarus died of cancer in 1887, her suffering having a great effect on her friend. While in New London, Hawthorne and Lathrop met the businessman Alfred Hebard Chappell, who had recently converted to Catholicism. He had many discussions with the couple about his conversion. During this time period, Lathrop had become an alcohol abuser and was dealing with depression. Una had suspected that he abused her sister years before. Lathrop competed with Julian for control of Nathaniel Hawthorne's legacy. She published a book of poems, Along the Shore, in 1888.
They collaborated on a book, A Story of Courage: A History of the Georgetown Visitation Convent, a Catholic monastery in Washington, D.C. During this period, the couple started reading Catholic writings such as Cardinal James Gibbons’ The Faith of Our Fathers (1876), Thomas John Capel’s The Faith of Catholics and Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman's Lectures on the principal doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church (1836). Hawthorne and Lathrop converted to Roman Catholicism in 1891, the ceremony being held at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan. Though "To many of their old friends this conversion came as a shock", her decision to convert had been years in the making.
Their travels through England, Portugal, France and Italy [had] exposed the Hawthornes to the 'Roman Church,' often misunderstood in the Protestant circles of New England … Hawthorne would write of her experience at the age of seven of seeing Pope Pius IX during Holy Week from his balcony: "I became eloquent about the Pope, and was rewarded by a gift from my mother of a little medallion of him and a gold scudo with an excellent likeness thereon, both always tenderly reverenced by me."
Hawthorne and Lathrop were involved in the establishment of the Catholic Summer School of America project, located in New London and Plattsburgh, New York. Attendees had the benefits of university-level courses on Catholicism in resort settings.The couple were commissioned by the Georgetown Visitation Nuns to write A Story of Courage: A History of the Georgetown Visitation Convent, their convent in Washington D.C.
Hawthorne in 1895 petitioned the Catholic Church for a separation from Lathrop; his mental state had deteriorated so much that she felt unsafe when his had his outbursts of anger.
