Anna de Koven (''née'' Farwell; November 19, 1862 – January 12, 1953) was an American novelist, historian and socialite. The wife of composer

Reginald de Koven Henry Louis Reginald De Koven (April 3, 1859January 16, 1920) was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas. Biography De Koven was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and moved to Europe in 1870, where he receive ...

, she published her works as Mrs. Reginald de Koven.

Career

Anna Farwell was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois on November 19, 1860, the daughter of senator Charles B. Farwell and Mary Evelyn Farwell (''née'' Smith). She was the valedictorian of her class at

Lake Forest University Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts inst ...

. She married composer

on May 1, 1884, and they had one child. A well-known society hostess, she and her husband gave many musical receptions while living in their home in Irving Place in New York. An amateur athlete, she wrote in ''

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Hous ...

'' that "no sport is too reckless, too daring, or too strenuous for the more experienced among athletic American women." Her novels included 1895's ''a Sawdust Doll'', published by Stone and Kimball as part of "the Peacock Library." Her non-fictional works included a two-volume biography of

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

, published in 1913, and a study of spiritualism, ''A Cloud of Witnesses'' (1920), based on her efforts to contact her late sister, Rose Farwell Chatfield-Taylor (1870-1918). Anna de Koven died in

Northeast Harbor, Maine Northeast Harbor is a village on Mount Desert Island, located in the town of Mount Desert in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The original settlers, the Someses and Richardsons, arrived around 1761. The village has a significant summe ...

on January 12, 1953.

Bibliography

*''By the Waters of Babylon'' (1890) *''A Sawdust Doll'' (1895) *''Life and Letters of John Paul Jones'' (1913) *''The Counts of Gruyère'' (1916) *''A Cloud of Witnesses'' (1920) *''A Primer of Citizenship'' (1923) *''A Musician and His Wife'' (1926) *''Horace Walpole and Madame du Deffand: an Eighteenth Century Friendship'' (1929) *''Women in Cycles of Culture'' (1941)

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:DeKoven, Anna 20th-century American novelists 19th-century American novelists American women novelists 1862 births 1953 deaths Lake Forest College alumni Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American women writers 19th-century American women writers