We provide asymptotic expansions for the Stirling numbers of the first kind and, more generally, the Ewens (or Karamata-Stirling) distribution. Based on these expansions, we obtain some new results on the asymptotic properties of the mode and the maximum of the Stirling numbers and the Ewens distribution. For arbitrary $θ>0$ and for all sufficiently large $n\in\mathbb N$, the unique maximum of the Ewens probability mass function $$ \mathbb L_n(k) = \frac{θ^k}{θ(θ+1)\ldots(θ+n-1)} \genfrac{[}{]}{0pt}{}{n}{k}, \quad k=1,\ldots,n, $$ is attained at $k= \left\lfloor θ\log n + \frac{θΓ'(θ)}{Γ(θ)} - \frac 12\right\rfloor$ or $k=\left\lceil θ\log n + \frac{θΓ'(θ)}{Γ(θ)} + \frac 12\right\rceil$. We prove that the mode is $$ k=\left\lfloor θ\log n - \frac{θΓ'(θ)}{Γ(θ)}\right\rfloor $$ for a set of $n$'s of asymptotic density $1$, yet this formula is not true for infinitely many $n$'s.