Mary Wells Ashworth


Mary Wells Ashworth was an American historian. She was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship for biography in 1955 and was a co-winner of the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for George Washington, Volumes I-VII.

Biography

Ashworth was born in Plant City, Florida on May 28, 1903. She went to Virginia to complete a Bachelor of Arts at Hollins College in 1924.
Ashworth worked as a historian for Douglas Southall Freeman while he wrote his biography George Washington from 1945 to 1953. Throughout her time on Washington's biography, Ashworth was initially a bibliographer for Freeman at the start of the seven volume biography. When Freeman died after writing Volume VI of his biography on Washington, Ashworth worked at Charles Scribner's Sons from 1954 to 1957.
For the final volumes of the Washington biography, Ashworth was involved in the publication stages of Volume VI and co-wrote Volume VII alongside John Alexander Carroll. George Washington, Volume VII was Ashworth's first and only book as an author. Apart from writing, Ashworth's entries were featured in Notable American Women 1607-1950 and the World Book Encyclopedia.
Ashworth was married with two children. On September 12, 1992, she died of an aortic rupture in Richmond, Virginia.

Awards and honors

In 1954, Ashworth was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in biography. In 1958, she was a co-winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for George Washington, Volumes I-VII.