author
Katharine Susan Anthony
1877–1965
A pioneering biographer and feminist writer, she explored the lives of powerful, complicated women with unusual psychological depth. Her books brought figures like Margaret Fuller, Susan B. Anthony, Catherine the Great, and Queen Elizabeth I to a wide American readership.
1 Audiobook
Catherine the Great
by Katharine Susan Anthony
About the author
Born in Roseville, Arkansas, on November 27, 1877, Katharine Susan Anthony became an American biographer, critic, and feminist writer whose work often centered on notable women. She studied at Peabody College and later at the University of Heidelberg, and she spent much of her professional life in New York, where she moved in progressive literary and political circles.
Anthony was especially known for writing biographies that blended historical research with an interest in psychology. Among her best-known subjects were Margaret Fuller, Susan B. Anthony, Catherine the Great, and Queen Elizabeth. Her book The Lambs (1945), about Charles and Mary Lamb, was one of her most discussed works and helped cement her reputation as a bold, sometimes controversial interpreter of literary lives.
She was also active in feminist causes and is remembered as part of the generation of early 20th-century women writers who helped reshape biography into something more searching and personal. Anthony died in New York City on November 20, 1965.