WINSLOW, Ola Elizabeth

Born 1885, Grant City, Missouri; died 27 September 1977, Damariscotta, Maine

Daughter of William D. and Hattie Colby Winslow

Ola Elizabeth Winslow could trace her ancestry back to the Mayflower. Although born in the Midwest, she grew up in California, where she attended Stanford University (B.A. 1906, M.A. 1914). In 1922 she received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. From 1909 to 1961 she taught English at several colleges, on both coasts. She was professor of English at Wellesley College (1944-50) and instructor at the Radcliffe Seminars (1950-61). Winslow was fond of New England, and after her retirement spent her winters in Boston, doing research in the Boston Atheneum Library. In the summers, she lived in Sheepscott, Maine, in an old farmhouse she had restored. Here she enjoyed gardening and observing wildlife and did much of her writing.

Her biography of Jonathan Edwards won the Pulitzer Prize in 1941, acclaimed a masterpiece by one critic after another. One wrote, "This is by far the most complete and scholarly account of Edwards's career that has been written." Winslow followed the Edwards biography with Meetinghouse Hill, 1630-1783 (1952), a description of religious life in colonial New England. It is so readable and informative it has been hailed as a valuable addition to any collection of Americana.

Then came a succession of seven books, each one notable for its careful scholarship, its exquisite craftsmanship, and its flashes of demure humor. Each has drawn praise from thoughtful critics. For instance, of Master Roger Williams (1957) one exclaimed that it is "certainly one of the most inspiring biographies about an American by an American written in recent years." And her history of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, written in 1966 for young children, was described as delightful reading, "a graceful, well-inte-grated narrative bringing the past to life." Although primarily occupied with American subjects, she produced a highly successful life of John Bunyan, the English mystic (1961). One reviewer proclaimed it the best biography of Bunyan in print.

Her primary interest lay with religious subjects, but she also wrote a book about Samuel Sewall, the judge at the Salem witch trials, and one about the conquest of smallpox. As her writings testify, she developed over the years a serene tolerance for the follies and errors of mankind. It was the sort of tolerance that comes only after much study of history and much thoughtful observing of the contemporary world.

Other Works:

American Broadside Verse (1930). Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758 (1940). John Bunyan (1961). Samuel Sewall of Boston (1964). Portsmouth: The Life of a Town (1966). Jonathan Edwards: Basic Writings (1966). John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians (1968). A Destroying Angel (1974).

Bibliography:

Reference works:

Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (1995).

Other references:

Boston Globe (2 Oct. 1977). Chicago Sunday Tribune (27 Oct. 1957). Christian Century (4 May 1940). NYT (20 Oct. 1957). NYTBR (8 May 1966). Yale Review (Autumn 1940, Winter 1953).

—ABIGAIL ANN HAMBLEN