Blanche Colton Williams

Blanche Colton Williams (February 10, 1879 – August 9, 1944) was an American author, editor, department head and professor of English literature, and pioneer in women’s higher education. She was known for her “groundbreaking work on structure and analysis of the short story” and is credited with having done more for the short story genre than anyone in her lifetime. An 1898 graduate of Industrial Institute and College in Columbus, Mississippi, the first public women’s university in the United States, Williams went on to a three-decade career at Hunter College, a women’s college in New York City.

Early life

Blanche Gertrude Williams was born February 10, 1879, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the first of four children to Millard Fillmore "Peter" Williams (1852–1900) and Mary Ella Colton Williams (1859–1928). Her siblings include Wirt Alfred Williams (born 1882), Sidney Colton Williams (born 1885), and Lulu Upton Williams (born 1893).

Her father worked as a schoolteacher and, unusual for his time and place, admired Abraham Lincoln and believed that slavery was wrong. He spent much of his time teaching and reading, while his wife pursued the hard work of the family farm in order to protect his delicate health (he later died of tuberculosis). Williams inherited her father’s “love of learning and democratic ideas” and her mother’s “determination, common sense, and tolerance.” Her mother's influence further led Williams to replace her given second name with that of her mother's maiden name (Colton) when she later began a publishing career.