Marian de Forest, a "distinguished dramatist, author, civic personality, music impresario, and pioneer newspaper woman," was born in Buffalo in 1864 and attended Buffalo Seminary, graduating in 1884. She began a career in newspapers, first with the Buffalo Evening News and then the Buffalo Commercial. After the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, in which she was secretary of the Board of Women Managers, she joined the staff of the , where she was to stay for 23 years. At the she was dramatic editor and editor of the Women's department, in which she had a regular column entitled "As I Go to the Play."

Marian de Forest earned notoriety far beyond the local scene, however, in her work as a playwright and author. She is best known as the author of , a dramatic adaptation of the story of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. was completed in 1911, had stage productions in Buffalo and elsewhere, and received rave reviews on the New York stage in 1912. Perhaps more significantly, the play served as the vehicle for Katharine Cornell's rise to acting stardom in the London stage production in 1919. With actress Jessie Bonstelle, Marian de Forest edited and published letters found at the Alcott home in Massachusetts, in a book entitled Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott. The de Forest papers contain a published version of only, but it also has extensive court documents from de Forest's copyright infringement suit brought against William A. Brady and others.

In 1919 Marian de Forest founded and became the first president of the Zonta Club, an organization for women business executives, the first of its kind in the country. In 1924-1925 she served as the fourth president of Zonta International.

Marian de Forest left the Buffalo Express in 1924 to become executive secretary and manager of the Buffalo Musical Foundation. In the winter months she devoted the majority of her time to promoting its concerts, and reserved the summer months for her writing. Marian de Forest died of cancer in Buffalo General Hospital in 1935, shortly before her 71st birthday.