Biography
Elsie Clews Parsons was the daughter of Henry Clews, a wealthy New York banker, and Lucy Madison Worthington. Her brother, Henry Clews, Jr. was an artist. In 1900, she married future three-term progressive Republican congressman Herbert Parsons, an associate and political ally of President Teddy Roosevelt. When her husband was a member of Congress, she published two then-controversial books under the pseudonym John Main.
She became interested in anthropology in 1910.
Her work Pueblo Indian Religion is considered a classic; here she gathered all her previous extensive work and that of other authors.
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