Gertrude Marvin Williams (July 10, 1884 – April 16, 1974) was an American biographer and journalist.

Biography

Williams was born Gertrude Leavenworth Marvin on July 10, 1884. Her parents were Rev. Walter Marvin and Grace Marvin.[1]

Williams graduated from Wellesley College (1907) and received a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania (1937).[2] She worked as a reporter for The New York Evening Sun.[2]

She is best known for her critical biographies of Annie Besant and Helena Blavatsky which have received positive reviews.[3][4][5][6] According to a review of the book, Williams revealed that Blavatsky was a fraud and her "charlatanry was of the crudest variety".[7]

Understanding India

Williams travelled over 6,000 miles in India for five months in 1928. She travelled by herself without servants, spending time in homes, markets and villages.[8] She interviewed Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian nationalists and spent time with people from different social classes. She described her observations in her book Understanding India (1928).[9]

Gandhi suggested the book would "help in many ways to correct the wrong impressions which Miss Mayo has given."[10]

Publications

References

  1. ↑ "Gertrude L. Marvin".
  2. 1 2 "Gertrude Williams, Writer And Educator, Dies at 89". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Robbins, Frances Lamont. (February 11, 1931). The Passionate Pilgrim, by Gertrude L. Marvin Williams. The Outlook. pp. 229–230
  4. ↑ Porter, Alan. (March 1931). The Passionate Pilgrim: A Life of Annie Besant by Gertrude Marvin Williams. The Bookman. pp. 88–89
  5. ↑ Bates, Ernest Sutherland. (April 18, 1931). Reformer and Theosophist. The Saturday Review. pp. 745–746
  6. ↑ Redman, Ben Ray. (December 1946). Twelve Success Stories. The American Mercury. pp. 749–756
  7. ↑ Roberts, Mary-Carter. (1946). "Reviewing the New Books". Evening Star. p. 2
  8. ↑ Dupée, Jeffrey N. (2008). Traveling India in the Age of Gandhi. University Press of America. pp. 15–16. ISBN 0-7618-3949-6
  9. ↑ Batchelder, Charles. (January 26, 1929). A Journalist's View: Understanding India by Gertrude Marvin Williams. The Saturday Review. p. 626
  10. ↑ Gandhi, Mahatma. (1970). Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India p. 398
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