novel Miss Dilletante in the Boston Courier under George's editorship in 1878 and published a book of poems, Along the Shore, in 1888. In the spring of 1879, Rose and her husband purchased her family's former home in Concord, The Wayside, with borrowed funds, where they lived until their son Francis died of diphtheria at the age of five in 1881. They returned to New York City but moved to New London, Connecticut, in 1887 for George's health. Following Francis' death George had become an alcoholic and was increasingly unstable. Una suspected he abused Rose. George also competed with Hawthorne's brother Julian for control of Nathaniel Hawthorne's legacy. In 1883, Julian planned to publish Dr. Grimshawe's Secret, a manuscript left unfinished by their father, but Rose did not believe in its existence and suspected him of forgery or perpetrating a hoax. In New London, the Lathrops became involved with the Catholic summer school movement and collaborated on a book, A Story of Courage: A History of the Georgetown Visitation Convent. Both Hawthorne and Lathrop converted to Roman Catholicism in 1891. Though "To many of their old friends this conversion came as a shock", Hawthorne's journey to Catholicism 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." Nevertheless, the Lathrops' marriage continued to suffer and they separated permanently in 1896. George died of cirrhosis three years later. Career Hawthorne sought greater purpose in her life and spent time with the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, becoming inspired by their motto, "I am for God and for the poor." She was further inspired by her relationship with Emma Lazarus, whom she befriended in 1881. After Lazarus's death from cancer at age 38, Hawthorne recalled that she was at least comfortable, unlike others who were poor. She wrote later, "Though I grieved deeply for her, I would not pity her, for she never knew unaided