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.
