Why Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Daughter Might Become a Saint

Mental Floss: Besides writing The Scarlet Letter (1850) and other famous works, Nathaniel Hawthorne is best known for studying transcendentalism and hanging out with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and 14th President Franklin Pierce. But his daughter, Rose Hawthorne, had an arguably even more compelling life than her father. Although she belonged to a wealthy Protestant family and had connections to the literary and political elite, she switched careers from writing to nursing at 45 years old. While caring for poor terminal cancer patients in New York City tenements, she became a Catholic nun, founded a religious order, and took a new name. Today, she’s on her way to becoming a saint.