The Book Prize Index

A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Presents the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife in Maine during the eighteenth century, by drawing on the detailed diary she kept for twenty-seven years of her life.

BiographyBiography · high confidenceBiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Maine, biography -> BiographyBiography & Public Lives

Award History

2 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Bancroft PrizeMajor1991WinnerOfficial source
Pulitzer Prize in HistoryMajor1991WinnerSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Martha Ballard92%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Maine74%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The book presents the life of Martha Ballard by drawing on her diary entries kept for twenty-seven years.

    Model confidence 66%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    36 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 86%.