Winslow, Ola Elizabeth (c. 1885–1977)

American writer and historian . Born around 1885 in Grant City, Missouri; died on September 27, 1977, in Damariscotta, Maine; daughter of William Delos Winslow and Hattie Elizabeth (Colby) Winslow; Stanford University, A.B., 1906, M.A., 1914; University of Chicago, Ph.D., 1922; pursued special studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Selected writings:

Low Comedy as a Structural Element in English Drama from the Beginnings to 1642 (1926); (compiler) Harper's Literary Museum (1927); (compiler) American Broadside Verse (1930); Jonathan Edwards, 1703–1758 (1940); Meetinghouse Hill, 1630–1783 (1952); Master Roger Williams (1957); John Bunyan (1961); Samuel Sewall of Boston (1964); Portsmouth, the Life of a Town (1966); (editor) Jonathan Edwards: Basic Writings (1966); John Eliot: Apostle to the Indians (1968); "And Plead for the Rights of All": Old South Church in Boston, 1669–1969 (1970); A Destroying Angel: The Conquest of Smallpox in Colonial Boston (1974).

Highly regarded in the field of Colonial religious history, Ola Elizabeth Winslow was born around 1885 in Grant City, Missouri. After receiving a bachelor's degree at Stanford University in 1906, Winslow began her teaching career as an instructor at the College of the Pacific (now the University of the Pacific) in San Jose, California (1909–14). At the same time, she pursued advanced study at Stanford University, earning her master's degree in 1914. As a professor of English, Winslow headed the English department at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, where she would remain until 1944. While also serving as assistant dean of the college from 1919 to 1921, she earned her doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1922. She also attended Johns Hopkins University for special studies.

In 1944, Winslow began a long affiliation with Wellesley College in Massachusetts, working as a professor of English there until 1950, when she retired and became professor emeritus until 1977. Beginning in 1950, she was also a professor of English at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she stayed until 1962. Winslow specialized in early American cultural history and was particularly interested in religious subjects. Her biography of Jonathan Edwards won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1941. Winslow then spent four months at the British Museum in England reviewing original documents related to John Bunyan's life, after which she published his biography in 1961. She also contributed reviews and articles to various magazines. Goucher College granted her an honorary doctor of literature in 1951. Winslow died in Damariscotta, Maine, near her retirement home in Sheepscot, on September 27, 1977.

Gillian S. Holmes , freelance writer, Hayward, California