Gertrude Marvin Williams

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. "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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