Augusta de Grasse Stevens was an American novelist and art critic active during the late nineteenth century. Born in Albany, New York, in 1852, she was the daughter of Samuel S. Stevens, a patent attorney, and Mary Frances Smith. Following the deaths of her father and her stepfather, John F. Butterworth, Stevens relocated to London with her mother. There, they joined her sister Marie, who was married to Sir Francis Evans, 1st Baronet.
In London, Stevens established herself as a prominent cultural voice, reporting on the local art scene for The New York Times for a decade. Her prominent position and critical work drew some professional resentment, notably from fellow novelist Harold Frederic, who later satirized her in his 1896 work Mrs. Albert Grundy: Observations in Philistia.
As a novelist, Stevens explored historical and contemporary themes. Her debut novel, Old Boston, was a historical romance set during the American Revolutionary War. She followed this with The Lost Dauphin, which examined Eleazer Williams's claim to be Louis XVII. Her novel Miss Hildreth courted contemporary controversy by featuring a character who accused the prominent occultist Helena Blavatsky of being a Russian spy—an accusation Blavatsky publicly denied. Stevens died in Brussels on October 10, 1894.
