Book description
Widely known today as the "Angel of the Battlefield," Clara
Barton's personal life has always been shrouded in mystery. In
Clara Barton, Professional Angel, Elizabeth Brown Pryor
presents a biography of Barton that strips away the heroic exterior
and reveals a complex and often trying woman.
Based on the papers Clara Barton carefully saved over her
lifetime, this biography is the first one to draw on these recorded
thoughts. Besides her own voluminous correspondence, it reflects the
letters and reminiscences of lovers, a grandniece who probed her
aunt's venerable facade, and doctors who treated her nervous
disorders. She emerges as a vividly human figure. Continually
struggling to cope with her insecure family background and a society
that offered much less than she had to give, she chose achievement as
the vehicle for gaining the love and recognition that frequently
eluded her during her long life.
Not always altruistic, her accomplishments were nonetheless
extraordinary. On the battlefields of the Civil War, in securing
American participation in the International Red Cross, in promoting
peacetime disaster relief, and in fighting for women's rights, Clara
Barton made an unparalleled contribution to American social progress.
Yet the true measure of her life must be made from this perspective:
she dared to offend a society whose acceptance she treasured, and she
put all of her energy into patching up the lives of those around her
when her own was rent and frayed.
"Barton established and headed the American Red Cross, was
superintendent of a women's reformatory, played a key role in
providing medical aid and relief to Civil War battlefronts, and helped
establish the New Jersey public school system. Yet her character was
far from saintly. Her desire for approval and recognition was
boundless, and her overachieving zeal alienated contemporaries. For
this outstanding biography, Pryor uses Barton's recently discovered
diaries, plus letters and other primary sources, to portray a complex,
troubled heroine without delving into historical psychoanalysis. A
tribute to a remarkable woman. Highly recommended."-Library Journal
Elizabeth Brown Pryor is an American diplomat and historian, most
recently as senior advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation
in Europe of the U. S. Congress. Her book Reading the Man: A Portrait of
Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters was awarded the Lincoln Prize
for 2008.
