Helen Ashe Hays

Helen Ashe Hays was an American writer whose work ranges from children's fantasy to garden writing. Surviving catalog and archival records connect her with books including The Princess Idleways: A Fairy Story and A Little Maryland Garden, showing both her imaginative side and her close attention to the natural world.

Archival material at Northwestern notes that she later became Helen Nutting after marrying Myron Nutting, and that she lived in Paris in the 1920s, where she was friendly with the James Joyce family and others in that literary circle. The same source says she published under the name Helen Ashe Hays before her marriage.

Because detailed biographical information is limited in the sources I could confirm, she remains a somewhat elusive figure today. That said, her books suggest a writer drawn to beauty, usefulness, and quiet wonder—whether she was describing flowers in a Maryland garden or building a fairy story for young readers.