John Hopkins Press

The Backwash of War: An Extraordinary American Nurse in World War I

$28.00

Description

by Ellen N. La Motte
Paperback

In September 1916, as World War I advanced into a third deadly year, an American woman named Ellen N. La Motte published a collection of stories about her experience as a war nurse. Deemed damaging to morale, The Backwash of War was immediately banned in both England and France and later censored in wartime America. At once deeply unsettling and darkly humorous, this compelling book presents a unique view of the destruction wrought by war to the human body and spirit. Long neglected, it is an astounding book by an extraordinary woman and merits a place among major works of WWI literature.

This volume gathers, for the first time, La Motte's published writing about the First World War. In addition to Backwash, it includes three long-forgotten essays. Annotated for a modern audience, the book features both a comprehensive introduction to La Motte's war-time writing in its historical and literary contexts and the first extended biography of the "lost" author of this "lost classic." Not only did La Motte boldly breach decorum in writing The Backwash of War, but she also forcefully challenged societal norms in other equally remarkable ways, as a debutante turned Johns Hopkins–trained nurse, pathbreaking public health advocate and administrator, suffragette, journalist, writer, lesbian, and self-proclaimed anarchist.

 

Dimensions:

5.5 x .64 x 8.5 inches

All items are shipped from the Museum Store in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Items will be fulfilled within 3 days of order placement. Standard shipping times will vary depending on the shipping method chosen at check-out. 

Merchandise may be returned within 14 days of purchase for a refund in the form of original payment.

For more information about our policies, visit our Shipping and Returns page.

All purchases are tax-free and benefit America's official World War I Museum and Memorial