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