Farnsworth worked as a reporter for "Collier's" and "The Providence Journal" during the Balkan War. He was working as a reporter in Mexico when US troops occupied Veracruz in 1914 and when World War I began. He wrote a book about his experiences in the Balkans, "The Log of a Would-be War Correspondent" as well as several plays and five volumes of short stories. His letters were also posthumously published by his father.