[1] Williams graduated from Wellesley College (1907) and received a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania (1937).
[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".
[8] She interviewed Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian nationalists and spent time with people from different social classes.
[9] Gandhi suggested the book would "help in many ways to correct the wrong impressions which Miss Mayo has given.