Born in Humphreysville (later Seymour), Connecticut, on March 30, 1810, Ann Winterbotham was educated in a local school and in a school in South Britain, Connecticut. In 1831 she married Edward Stephens, a merchant with whom she settled in Portland, Maine. In 1834 her husband established and she became editor of the Portland Magazine, a literary monthly that continued to appear for two years. In 1836 she edited The Portland Sketch Book, an anthology of works by local authors.
In 1837 they moved to New York City, and Ann Stephens became associate editor of the Ladies╒ Companion magazine. In 1841╨1842 she was on the staff of Graham╒s Magazine, then edited by Edgar Allan Poe, and from 1842 to 1853 she was coeditor of Peterson╒s Magazine. During those years she was also a frequent contributor to the Lady╒s Wreath, Frank Leslie╒s Ladies Gazette of Fashion, Columbian Lady╒s and Gentleman╒s Magazine, Brother Jonathan, published by her husband, and other periodicals. Her husband published her High Life in New York, sketches in Down East humor signed by ╥Jonathan Slick,╙ in 1843. In 1854 she published Fashion and Famine, a novel first serialized in Peterson╒s; she followed with Heiress of Clare Hall, 1854, The Old Homestead, 1855, Sibyl Chase, 1860, The Rejected Wife, 1863, Married in Haste, 1870, The Reigning Belle, 1872, Bertha╒s Engagement, 1875, Norston╒s Rest, 1877, and many other novels. During 1856╨1858 she edited her own Mrs. Stephens╒ Illustrated New Monthly; in the latter year it was merged with Peterson╒s, which continued to serialize her novels.
In 1860 she was commissioned by the Beadle & Adams Company to write the first of its new series of ╥Dime Novels.╙ Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter became a best-seller, and over the next four years she supplied Myra, the Child of Adoption, Ahmo╒s Plot, The Indian Queen, and three other Dime Novels to Beadle. In 1863 she edited a Pictorial History of the War for the Union.
Stephens was a noted literary hostess in New York City. Her popularity as an author was attested by the fact that at the time of her death a 23-volume edition of her works was in the press. She died at the home of her publisher, Charles J. Peterson, in Newport, Rhode Island, on August 20, 1886.
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