Anna Farwell de Koven was an American novelist, historian and socialite. The wife of famed composer Reginald de Koven

Reginald de Koven

Henry Louis Reginald De Koven was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas.-Biography:...

 and the daughter of senator Charles B. Farwell

Charles B. Farwell

Charles Benjamin Farwell was a U.S. Representative and Senator from Illinois.Farwell was born in Painted Post, New York and attended Elmira Academy before moving to Illinois in 1838. He first tried his hand at surveying and farming before moving to Chicago in 1844, when he went into banking. ...

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

Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...

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

John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...

, published in 1913, and a study of spiritualism entitled a Cloud of Witnesses published in 1920.