[3] In 1897, Anne Crawford moved to New York City to seek a literary career.

She wrote drama reviews for the Louisville Courier-Journal, and began writing her own plays.

Her first success, Miranda of the Balcony (based on a novel by A. E. W. Mason) starred Minnie Maddern Fiske when it opened in 1901.

She also adapted the works of her Louisville friend Alice Hegan Rice for the stage, as Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1904), starring Madge Carr Cook.

The Blue Pearl (1918) became a film in 1920, and All Soul's Eve (1920) was adapted for the screen in 1921.