LONE WOMAN: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell -- The First Woman Doctor

One of the more inspired of Dorothy Clarke Wilson's inspirational biographies, this recaptures with fresh detail the scenes (Bristol, England in the 1820's, New York City in the 1830's, Cincinnati in the early 1840's, and other cities of America, England, and France), the people (the remarkable Blackwell brood. the prominent reformers of the age, etc.) and the social and political ferment that were part of an exceptional individual saga, the lonely, determined, and successful struggle of Elizabeth Blackwell to become the first woman M.D, in America, And that was only the beginning of the fight, for Elizabeth's degree Was no guarantee against the stiff medical resistance and sharp social disapproval she encountered throughout her distinguished career, From a low point of losing an eye and giving up a romance at Paris's unsanitary maternity hospital for the poor to the high points like establishing the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children and helping found the London School of Medicine for Women, Elizabeth was always guided by a steel will and a strong sense of mission. She inspired other women to follow in her pioneering footsteps (including Florence Nightingale) and established women's place in medicine in the United States and England, As a physician, she was far ahead of her time in stressing sanitation, nutrition, and even sex education. Her nearly ninety years spanned an unprecedented development in the medical and social causes to which she had given her vast energies. The latter years are somewhat abruptly telescoped, but the bulk of her career is reconstructed with a rewarding fullness of content.