author
Katharine Susan Anthony
1877–1965
A sharp, independent biographer, she brought famous women and literary figures to life with a modern psychological approach. Her books mixed close research with a clear feminist point of view, helping widen the range of lives considered worth writing about.
1 Audiobook
Catherine the Great
by Katharine Susan Anthony
About the author
Katharine Susan Anthony was an American biographer, feminist, and writer born in Roseville, Arkansas, in 1877. She studied at the University of Chicago and later became known for writing lively, psychologically minded biographies at a time when that approach still felt new.
Much of her work focused on notable women, including Margaret Fuller, Susan B. Anthony, Queen Elizabeth, and Catherine the Great. She also wrote The Lambs (1945), a study of Charles and Mary Lamb that drew attention for its bold interpretation. Across her career, she was associated with suffrage-era and feminist circles, and her writing often reflected a strong interest in women’s intellectual and public lives.
Anthony spent much of her adult life in New York and remained an active literary presence for decades. She died in 1965, leaving behind a body of work that helped make biography more personal, probing, and open to women’s history.