Katherine Ashe

I've spent some 34 years researching the life of Simon de Montfort and the 13th century to write my four volume series, Montfort. During that time I also wrote plays, screenplays and radio plays on historical subjects from Columbus and the Borgias to, "Johnny!" on the early 20th century labor leader John Mitchell. Many of my plays were commissions: The New York City Historic House Trust for "An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe," Celeste Holm for a 13 episode PBS series "The Washingtons" (not made when Celeste became ill shooting "Promised Land"); "Johnny! was a prize commission for the "Year 2000 Celebration of American Labor." I was born in Hollywood, where my father, Fredric Frank, was a staff writer for Cecil B. deMille. My kindergarten bus left me off at Paramount where Jerry Lewis and I used to bark at the Dobermans in the iron kiosk by the main gate.