Helen Dore Boylston
Helen Dore Boylston | |
---|---|
Born | April 4, 1895 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States |
Died | September 30, 1984 Trumbull, Connecticut, United States |
Occupation | Nurse, Writer |
Nationality | American |
Period | 1925–1955 |
Genre | Memoir, Young Adult fiction and non-fiction |
Subject | Nursing, Acting |
Helen Dore Boylston (April 4, 1895 – September 30, 1984) was the American writer of the popular "
Biography
Born in
She nursed the wounded at a front-line field hospital,[7] specializing as a nurse anesthetist and reaching the rank of captain.[2] Boylston wrote about her experiences in Sister: The War Diary of a Nurse, which was published in 1920.[2][7]
After the
Boylston was still anxious for adventure and wrote to a friend "Daddy wants me to settle down, but I'm young! I'm young! Why shouldn't I live? What is old age if it has no memories except of 40 years or so of blank days?"
Boylston lived in a comfortable house in
In the summer of 1928 Boylston arrived at Rocky Ridge, the Wilder family farmhouse in Mansfield, Missouri.[13][14] Encouraged by the publication of her War Diary in book form, she decided to gain a living by writing, though she also supported in part by inherited income. She initially lived in a tent on a hill near the farmhouse, though the plan was that Boylston and Lane would live in the remodeled and modernized farmhouse, while Lane's parents, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder, moved into a newly built English stone cottage.[15]
Boylston lost considerable sums of investment income in the Depression and in the early 1930s moved east to work again as a nurse.[16] In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Boylston began writing and publishing stories more seriously. She published articles and stories in In 1936 Boylston published Sue Barton: Student Nurse, the first of her seven Sue Barton books.[1] In publisher's note in a 1967 British edition of the book, Boylston stated that all the nursing incidents in the first two books were based on real events. The Kit, Connie and Bill characters were also based on real individuals and used their real names, while others used pseudonyms. She denied that Barton herself was an autobiographical portrait, saying "I made her up, lock, stock and barrel. She is the kind of person and the kind of nurse I wished I were, and I had a lot of fun creating her."[17]
The books followed the career of a red-haired nurse as she progressed through her training, career, marriage and motherhood, and sought to maintain her independence.[2] They were significant in providing role models to girls who wanted careers from the 1930s to 1950s, and in being among those that defined the young adult category of literature.[8] The books were highly successful, selling millions of copies in English and translations,[1] and were praised for their authentic representation of nursing practice and freedom from sentimentality.[8] The books have been translated into several foreign languages, they remained in print ever since.[5]
With Sue Barton married to Bill Barry and expecting her first baby in Sue Barton: Superintendent Nurse, Boylston began a new series about another career woman, this time an actress, Carol Page. She incorporated the advice and experience of
Boylston never married.[1] She suffered from dementia in later years,[18] and died in Trumbull, Connecticut at the age of 89, leaving no known relatives.[1]
Works
- Sister: The War Diary of a Nurse (1920)
- Sue Barton, Student Nurse (1936)
- Sue Barton, Senior Nurse (1937)
- Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse (1938)
- Sue Barton, Rural Nurse (1939)
- Sue Barton, Superintendent of Nurses (1940)
- Sue Barton, Neighborhood Nurse (1949)
- Sue Barton, Staff Nurse (1952)
- Carol Goes Backstage (1941)
- Carol Plays Summer Stock (1942) (published as Carol in Repertory in the United Kingdom, 1944)
- Carol on Broadway (1944)
- Carol on Tour (1946)
- Clara Barton: Founder of American Red Cross (1955 and 1963)
- Travels With Zenobia: Paris to Albania by Model T Ford (with Rose Wilder Lane) (1983)
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Helen Dore Boylston Is Dead; Author of 'Sue Barton' Series". The New York Times. 1984-10-05. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Helen Dore Boylston: Nurse From New Hampshire". Archived from the original on March 12, 2008. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
- ^ a b Holtz 1995, p. 100
- ^ a b c d e f g h Ashenburg, Katherine (Summer 2003). "Sue Barton and Me". The American Scholar. 72 (3): 137–141.
- ^ .
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57181-744-0.
- ^ a b Boylston, Helen Dore (1927). Sister: The War Diary of a Nurse. Washburn.
- ^ ISBN 0-395-65380-0.
- ^ a b c Hughes, Cynthia Cardon. "Helen Dore Boylston: Clinician, Administrator, Popular Author: A Life in Leadership". The Institute for Nursing Healthcare Leadership. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
- JSTOR 3409629.
- ^ Holtz 1995, pp. 161–3
- ^ Holtz 1995, pp. 163, 166
- ^ a b Holtz 1995, p. 184
- ISBN 978-0-8262-1803-2.
- ^ Holtz 1995, pp. 187, 194
- ISBN 978-0-8262-1803-2.
- ISBN 0340024631.
Every single incident in the first two 'Sue's' - nursing incident, I mean - actually happened, either to me or to some of my classmates. Kit and Connie were real, and those are their real names. Same goes for Bill. Francesca and Hilda were also taken from life, though those are not their real names. Hilda, in fact, was my room-mate when I was in probe. Miss Cameron was so real she scares me yet, though I loved her dearly. She was greatly amused to find herself in a book and wrote me a charming letter about it. Sue is not me! I made her up, lock, stock and barrel. She is the kind of person and the kind of nurse I wished I were, and I had a lot of fun creating her."
- ^ Holtz 1995, p. 8
Bibliography
- Holtz, William (1995). The Ghost in the Little House:A Life of Rose Wilder Lane. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-1015-9.