Clara Barton, Professional Angel

by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

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.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Medicine, Nursing, Civil War, Womens

476 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1987

About the author

Elizabeth Brown Pryor was an American historian and diplomat, in which capacity she served as senior advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe of the U.S. Congress.

Pryor was born Mary Elizabeth Brown in Gary, Indiana. Her father worked for AT&T, and the family moved multiple times for his job. She finished her secondary school education in Summit, New Jersey and attended Northwestern University. Upon her graduation in 1973, Pryor began working for the United States Park Service. She also obtained a second bachelor's degree from the University of London and a masters in history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1983, Brown joined the Department of State. She formulated the policy, known as the Pryor Paper, that eventually led the United States to rejoin UNESCO in 2003.

In 2008, Pryor was awarded the Lincoln Prize for 'Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee' through his Private Letters. She shared the honor with James Oakes, who won for 'The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics'. Pryor's book is notable for using hundreds of Lee's previously unpublished private letters to create a fresh biography of the Confederate general. Pryor is also the author of the biography 'Clara Barton: Professional Angel' about the founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton.

She was married and divorced twice, first to Anthony Pryor, then Frank Parker.

Sadly, Pryor was killed in a rear end vehicle accident caused by a speeding car driven by Robert Stevens Gentil in Richmond, Virginia on April 13, 2015. Gentil's long-term mental health issues led to episodes of manic delusions, including the belief on this occasion that his car was flying.

She was survived by her mother, Mary Brown Hamingson, and two sisters

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well written and meticulously researched. The book is long: 476 pages or nineteen and a half hours for an audiobook. Pryor wrote a scholarly account of Barton’s life.

Clara Barton is another example of a person who suffers from chronic anxiety-depression and used excessive work to control the systems of the depression. In doing this she achieved great things including the founding of the Red Cross. Barton was obviously an intelligent woman who found the constraints on the role of women confining. She became an activist to help expand the rights and roles of women. At times the book was a bit repetitive, otherwise, it was an informative read.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Sheri Leigh Horn does a good job narrating the book.

[Mary Hogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though frequently repetitive, and filled with the author's obsession with word-for-word quotes from Clara's diary (as if she had no life that wasn't documented), this thick book nonetheless grabbed me and inspired me in numerous ways. Ultimately, this is the story of an insecure woman who was her own worst enemy. Her desire to be loved propelled her to extraordinary deeds--not the least of which was starting the American Red Cross. That very same insecurity made her so sensitive to constructive criticism that she alienated supporters and family and was unable to get the recognition she deserved. For me, Clara Barton's life--as chronicled in this book--highlights how hard it is to be a trailblazer (especially a female one!), and how much you need to reach out and work with others to succeed.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich with detail from diaries, newspapers, correspondence, and other writings, this volume is a necessary one on an important woman. I would have appreciated more insight into Barton's religious leanings, but Pryor made it clear that Barton was private about her spirituality, though it seems there were a few stones unturned. Artwork would have been a delightful addition--if only the University of Pennsylvania had upped their game in 1987.

This is one of those biographies that's rich with living-history nuggets. Barton's full name is Clarissa Harlowe Barton. She was named after an aunt who was named after my least favorite novel ever by Samual Richardson (talk about fanatics--she had another aunt named Pamela). Pryor brought her mental health struggles to life, and her mother's difficult personality (spiteful much?) and her sister Dolly, who went insane, cared for with all the tenderness of the Victorian era. Barton's involvement in international politics and benevolence was richly explicated, and there was a lot to cover.

My one quibble is that Pryor makes her interpretation of Barton clear from the outset. She doesn't let the life of Barton herself bring the reader to her conclusions, but wags her evidence in the reader's face too frequently. However, her interpretation is well-supported, so this doesn't weaken the biography overall. Barton had a strong personality, which turns some people away from her, but her tenacity helped her cause.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is a serious, scholarly book it also reads very well, and it is enjoyable to read an in-depth biography of someone who was posed as a major role model to many of us of a certain age - I don't think she is so posited anymore, in part because there are now a great many strong female role models. Certainly this is someone who had major health and depression problems, yet managed to accomplish a great deal. Her need for personal recognition, as well as an inability it seems to delegate authority or even choose good subordinates, are marks against her - hard to see how she expected the Red Cross to be the sole agency providing relief services to the military when it consisted largely of her own small coterie, and she herself was not managing but insisting on going to the field and personally ministering to the wounded.

I should also say that she even reminds me a bit of Richard Nixon - clearly a very bright, commanding person, but with an inferiority complex and a tendency to think of everyone and everything as against her, hence enemies. In balance, though, despite her flaws, Barton is still to be admired, but is simply a much more complex person than biographies for children would reveal.

This book is also particularly interesting as a history of women and social mores in the 19th century, and is worth reading just for that.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the little gift shop at the Clara Barton House in Glen Echo, after bringing my parents there for a tour. Truthfully, a voice in the back of my head told me it was an impulse purchase I would later regret. I started it right away so I wouldn't lose interest, and it was actually a very interesting read! I'll quote from one reviewer on the back cover who described the book best: "Irresistible..Clara Barton, compassionate angel, becomes Clara Barton, neurotic, adulterer, careerist, embittered octogenarian...Perhaps more important, she at the same time remains Clara Barton, compassionate angel...The book thoroughly succeeds at releasing its subject from the Boredom Hall of Fame. That's plainly no spot for a moral force who lowered her age for reporters, backdated letters about battles she'd witnessed and dyed her hair while advising her friends and her public the 'her raven locks had never turned gray.'" I would recommend this for anyone who likes a good biography.

[Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last summer, my family and I took a trip to Maryland. One weekend we paid a visit to the Clara Barton national historic site in Glen Echo, which is just north of Washington DC. There is a large home that she lived in there, during the later years of here life, that also served as a facility for the American Red Cross that she founded. She is a fascinating individual, who in spite of her many accomplishments and achievements and in spite of her kindness and charity for those in need, struggled with her own feelings of worth and satisfaction. She received lots of praise and awards throughout her life and was well-loved by many but it never was quite enough for her. I gave this book a lower rating not because of the subject, but because of the writing. It is harder to get through as the writing is not as engaging as other books and it felt like it took a really long time to get through it.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story that describes so many incredible and groundbreaking accomplishments. A woman who thoroughly challenged the limited accepted roll of women in her time, trailblazing an example for the early women's rights movements. At the same time the book reveals the inner person through her own writings. These include many difficulties that may take away from this person. That is until you are able to see glimpses of yourself in her struggles. This makes us not perfect but human, and the accomplishments even more impressive.

[Micebyliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

a marvelous account of a life of sacrifice and heartache, some of it self imposed. a truly heroic woman however.

[Robert K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have great respect for Clara Barton in part because of what she accomplished: in part because she is recognized throughout Fairfax Station, Virginia for her nursing exploits there following the Battle of 2nd Manassas (Bull Run) but mostly because my daughter Rose took an interest in her which allowed Rosie & I to develop a bond of love which I cherish!
Sadly, this author become obsessed with Barton’s idiosyncrasies which dominated the book rather than her accomplishments...

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a long time Clara Barton fan, this account just made me sad

[Cws]

3617Pry

[Katharine Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read.