Clara Barton: Professional Angel

by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812212738
• ISBN13: 9780812212730
• Release Date: February 1988
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 476 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

excellent condition

This book came in like-new condition. It's a "thick" read, but a good one. Very interesting biography.

Excellent Biography

Elizabeth Brown Pryor eloquently told the story of Clara Barton digging deep into who exactly Clara Barton was and the many areas in which Clara was an agent for change in society.

Clara Barton: Pushy Broad

I enjoyed this biography of Barton as it covered more than just her years as a Civil War nurse & battlefield angel. Pryor gives life to Barton, exposing her touching little secrets (she liked to take a nip now and then, had a romance with a married man & dyed her hair) as well as her less-than-saintly personality (she was fiercly competive with other reformers like Dorthea Dix and really like being in the spotlight). Her two major accomplishment -- her battlefield nursing and the founding of the American Red Cross -- came about through stubborn sacrifice and a real dedication. She got done what she did because she was relentless in achieving her purposes. Her pushiness knew no bounds: she called on neighbors and politicians, asked for favors, used emotional blackmail and wasn't always sweet as pie about it all. Pryor's admiration for her subject is evident and she reveals Clara as a modern woman who used any and every resource available at a time when no one was inclined to support such activity. I came away from this book liking Clara Barton, even with her halo slightly tarnished.