George Parsons Lathrop

Born in Honolulu in 1851, George Parsons Lathrop became an American poet, novelist, and editor whose career stretched across several corners of literary life. He studied in Germany as a young man, later worked in journalism, and is remembered not only for his own writing but also for his literary criticism and editorial work.

Lathrop published poetry collections including Rose and Roof-Tree and Dreams and Days, along with prose such as In the Distance: A Novel. He also wrote A Study of Hawthorne, edited an edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works, and adapted The Scarlet Letter for an opera by Walter Damrosch.

He married Rose Hawthorne in 1871, and his life remained closely connected to the Hawthorne legacy. Alongside his work as a writer and editor, he has also been noted for helping advance international copyright reform in the United States before his death in New York City in 1898.