(Harriet) Virginia Spencer Cowles OBE (August 24, 1910 – September 17, 1983) was a noted American journalist, biographer, and travel writer. During her long career, Cowles went from covering fashion, to covering the Spanish Civil War, the turbulent period in Europe leading up to World War II, and the entire war. Her service as a correspondent was recognized by the British government with an OBE in 1947. After the war, she published several critically acclaimed biographies of historical figures. In 1983, while traveling with her husband, she was killed in an automobile accident which left him severely injured.
Books in order of publication:
Looking for Trouble, (journalistic experiences), Harper, (1941)
How America Is Governed, Lutterworth, (1944)
No Cause for Alarm, Harpers, (1949) (published in England as No Cause for Alarm: A Study of Trends in England Today, Hamish Hamilton, (1949)
Winston Churchill: The Era and the Man, Harper, (1953)
Gay Monarch: The Life and Pleasures of Edward VII, Harper, (1956) (published in England as Edward VII and His Circle, Hamish Hamilton, 1956)
The Phantom Major: The Story of David Stirling and His Desert Command, Harper, (1958) (published in England as The Phantom Major: The Story of David Stirling and the S.A.S. Regiment, Collins, (1958), junior edition, (1962)
The Great Swindle: The Story of the South Sea Bubble, Harper, (1960)
The Kaiser, Harper, (1963)
1913: The Defiant Swan Song, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1967)
The Russian Dagger: Cold War in the Days of the Czars, Harper, (1969)
The Romanovs, Harper, (1971)
The Rothschilds: A Family of Fortune, Knopf, (1973)
The Last Tsar and Tsarina, Weidenfeld &; Nicolson, (1977)
The Astors: the Story of a Transatlantic Family, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1979)
The Great Marlborough and His Duchess, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, (1983)
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