CLARA BARTON OF THE RED CROSS

An excellent biography of the woman who established the Red Cross in this country, published at a time when the Red Cross is once more of enormous international importance. Mrs. Nolan has succeeded in conveying the contradictions of her character, her almost neurotic shyness at times, her collapses when stringent need passed over -- and her enormous capacity for work and achievement the balance of the time. Her New England childhood, the youngest of a sizable family who adored her; her schooling, her restless urge to be busy, her early jobs -- and finally, her determination to take nursing to the battlefields of the Civil War. Subsequent world conflicts took her elsewhere and she was obsessed with the necessity of establishing the U.S. on an equal basis with other countries in the international Red Cross. Eventually she achieved her purpose, at terrific cost to herself, and furthermore launched the Red Cross on a program of peacetime activities. A first rate job, which all ages will find stimulating.