Ellen N. La Motte (1873–1961)
Autor de The Backwash of War: The Classic Account of a First World War Field-Hospital Nurse
Sobre El Autor
Obras de Ellen N. La Motte
Pekin Dust 1 copia
Obras relacionadas
War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar and Peace Writing (2016) — Contribuidor — 87 copias
The Best Short Stories of 1919 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1919) — Contribuidor — 14 copias
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre legal
- LaMotte, Ellen Newbold
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1873
- Fecha de fallecimiento
- 1961
- Género
- female
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Louisville, Kentucky, USA
- Lugar de fallecimiento
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Lugares de residencia
- Wilmington, Delaware, USA
- Educación
- Arlington Institute, Alexandria, Virginia
Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses - Ocupaciones
- memoirist
nurse
journalist
author
public speaker
suffragist (mostrar todos 7)
diarist - Relaciones
- Borden, Mary (colleague)
Stein, Gertrude (friend) - Biografía breve
- Ellen La Motte was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of a businessman. In her late teens, after her father's business failed, she moved to Wilmington, Delaware, to live with her cousin, the wealthy industrialist Alfred I. du Pont. She was educated by governesses and attended the Arlington Institute, a private school for girls in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1898, she entered nursing school at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduation, she worked at Johns Hopkins, in Italy, and at St. Luke's Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. She returned to Baltimore in 1905 to work as a tuberculosis nurse, which became her specialty. She published articles and gave talks to local, regional, and national audiences. She became the supervisor of the tuberculosis division of the Baltimore Health Department in 1910, the first woman to hold an executive position in that agency. She also campaigned for women's suffrage and in 1913 took a leave of absence from her job to report for The Baltimore Sun on the activities of militant British suffragists in London. She then went to Paris, where she wrote her first book, The Tuberculosis Nurse: Her Function and Her Qualifications. In 1915, she was engaged by Mary Borden to help establish a field hospital in World War I, making her one of the first American nurses to treat soldiers at the Front. She kept a diary describing the horrors she witnessed. On her return to the USA, she turned the diary into a book, The Backwash of War (1916), which was suppressed by the U.S. government as demoralizing and not published until 1934. After the war, she travelled in Asia with fellow nurse Emily Chadbourne, and accumulated material for six books, three of them on the problem of opium addiction, including Peking Dust (1919), Opium Monopoly (1920), and Ethics of Opium (1922). During the 1920s, she lived in England and traveled frequently to Switzerland to attend hearings at the League of Nations. She settled in Washington, D.C., in the 1930s.
Miembros
Reseñas
THE BACKWASH OF WAR (original subtitle, THE HUMAN WRECKAGE OF THE BATTLEFIELD AS WITNESSED BY AN AMERICAN HOSPITAL NURSE), Ellen La Motte's little book of stories from the Belgian front of WWI was successful enough to go through multiple printings in the U.S. in 1916-17, although it was banned in France and England, where its dark tone was considered detrimental to morale and to the war effort itself. And, once the U.S. entered the war, the book was suppressed there too.
I had never heard of BACKWASH until very recently, when I ran across a mention of this new edition in a WWI Centennial Newsletter. As a "war lit" buff (in fact I'd just finished reading another obscure WWI memoir by an English private, A.M. Burrage's WAR IS WAR, about his time in the trenches of Belgium), I was immediately intrigued and decided to read it. And I was not disappointed. Cynthia Wachtell, an American Studies prof at Yeshiva University, has rescued the book from decades of obscurity, adding an erudite and scholarly Introduction and a perhaps first-ever biography of La Motte, to a well-annotated text of the original volume. She also added three other published wartime essays by LaMotte, along with an extensive list of other LaMotte writings, followed by her own extensive research notes and a useful index. In other words, the Wachtell edition - a fascinating mix of history, literature and women's studies - is a very important piece of scholarship, deserving of a wide audience.
Ellen La Motte's life was one of great accomplishment. Trained at Johns Hopkins as a nurse, she became a recognized expert on tuberculosis, publishing numerous articles about the disease and its treatment, and also held important administrative positions with the Health Department of Baltimore. Though not wealthy herself, she enjoyed the patronage of a very wealthy cousin, which gave her the opportunity to volunteer as a nurse overseas during the Great War. La Motte was already over forty when she traveled to France to try to "do her bit" for the war. Her experiences in a large Paris military hospital and then in a French field hospital near the Belgian front formed the basis for her BACKWASH stories, all of them dark and filled with starkly grim descriptions of the wounded and dying men she treated there.
While the stories are compelling enough in themselves - and I can see why they enjoyed such success in those early years of the war - what I found even more interesting here in the Wachtell edition was La Motte's own life story, brought out so well in the added biography and historical timeline. After she got to France, La Motte met Emily Crane Chadbourne, a wealthy divorcee from Chicago, heiress of the Crane Company (known primarily today for its bathroom fixtures). They began a relationship which would endure until La Motte's death in 1961. In Paris they would become close friends with another unorthodox couple, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas - a friendship which endured for nearly forty years. One is compelled to wonder if Ernest Hemingway, a frequent guest at Stein's salon in the postwar years, read BACKWASH (maybe even got a copy from Stein?), and developed his own terse, declarative style of writing in imitation of La Motte. Because the stylistic similarities are striking. But, having read another fascinating book, STEIN AND HEMINGWAY: THE STORY OF A TURBULENT FRIENDSHIP, by Lyle Larsen, I know that Ernie & Gert's friendship had its ups and downs, and that the macho Hemingway would have been loathe to admit being influenced by any woman, whether it be Stein or La Motte.
I was intrigued to learn that, despite her many accomplishments in the field of health and medicine, La Motte's real ambition was to be a writer, a dream she could follow freely, having become independently wealthy, first through her cousin, and then through her life-partner, Chadbourne. Following the success of BACKWASH, she became interested in the scourge of opium addiction, and traveled to China and other parts of the Far East to research it, later publishing numerous articles and several books on the opium trade. I wonder if any of those pieces would be relevant again today in light of the current opioid addiction crisis here in America.
When one thinks of literary classics of WWI, Hemingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS, Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, and perhaps e.e. cummings' THE ENORMOUS ROOM usually come to mind. To those I've previously added another favorite of my own, Frederic Manning's HER PRIVATES WE. And now there's this one, THE BACKWASH OF WAR: AN EXTRAORDINARY AMERICAN NURSE IN WORLD WAR I, which came before any of those others. There are several editions of La Motte's book available now, since it is in the public domain, but I will strongly recommend this one from Johns Hopkins University Press, with all of its important and illuminating addendums from editor Cynthia Wachtell. History, Literature and Women's Studies professors and teachers should take note, because this is a very important contribution to all of those fields. My congratulations to Dr Wachtell. My highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA… (más)
I had never heard of BACKWASH until very recently, when I ran across a mention of this new edition in a WWI Centennial Newsletter. As a "war lit" buff (in fact I'd just finished reading another obscure WWI memoir by an English private, A.M. Burrage's WAR IS WAR, about his time in the trenches of Belgium), I was immediately intrigued and decided to read it. And I was not disappointed. Cynthia Wachtell, an American Studies prof at Yeshiva University, has rescued the book from decades of obscurity, adding an erudite and scholarly Introduction and a perhaps first-ever biography of La Motte, to a well-annotated text of the original volume. She also added three other published wartime essays by LaMotte, along with an extensive list of other LaMotte writings, followed by her own extensive research notes and a useful index. In other words, the Wachtell edition - a fascinating mix of history, literature and women's studies - is a very important piece of scholarship, deserving of a wide audience.
Ellen La Motte's life was one of great accomplishment. Trained at Johns Hopkins as a nurse, she became a recognized expert on tuberculosis, publishing numerous articles about the disease and its treatment, and also held important administrative positions with the Health Department of Baltimore. Though not wealthy herself, she enjoyed the patronage of a very wealthy cousin, which gave her the opportunity to volunteer as a nurse overseas during the Great War. La Motte was already over forty when she traveled to France to try to "do her bit" for the war. Her experiences in a large Paris military hospital and then in a French field hospital near the Belgian front formed the basis for her BACKWASH stories, all of them dark and filled with starkly grim descriptions of the wounded and dying men she treated there.
While the stories are compelling enough in themselves - and I can see why they enjoyed such success in those early years of the war - what I found even more interesting here in the Wachtell edition was La Motte's own life story, brought out so well in the added biography and historical timeline. After she got to France, La Motte met Emily Crane Chadbourne, a wealthy divorcee from Chicago, heiress of the Crane Company (known primarily today for its bathroom fixtures). They began a relationship which would endure until La Motte's death in 1961. In Paris they would become close friends with another unorthodox couple, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas - a friendship which endured for nearly forty years. One is compelled to wonder if Ernest Hemingway, a frequent guest at Stein's salon in the postwar years, read BACKWASH (maybe even got a copy from Stein?), and developed his own terse, declarative style of writing in imitation of La Motte. Because the stylistic similarities are striking. But, having read another fascinating book, STEIN AND HEMINGWAY: THE STORY OF A TURBULENT FRIENDSHIP, by Lyle Larsen, I know that Ernie & Gert's friendship had its ups and downs, and that the macho Hemingway would have been loathe to admit being influenced by any woman, whether it be Stein or La Motte.
I was intrigued to learn that, despite her many accomplishments in the field of health and medicine, La Motte's real ambition was to be a writer, a dream she could follow freely, having become independently wealthy, first through her cousin, and then through her life-partner, Chadbourne. Following the success of BACKWASH, she became interested in the scourge of opium addiction, and traveled to China and other parts of the Far East to research it, later publishing numerous articles and several books on the opium trade. I wonder if any of those pieces would be relevant again today in light of the current opioid addiction crisis here in America.
When one thinks of literary classics of WWI, Hemingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS, Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, and perhaps e.e. cummings' THE ENORMOUS ROOM usually come to mind. To those I've previously added another favorite of my own, Frederic Manning's HER PRIVATES WE. And now there's this one, THE BACKWASH OF WAR: AN EXTRAORDINARY AMERICAN NURSE IN WORLD WAR I, which came before any of those others. There are several editions of La Motte's book available now, since it is in the public domain, but I will strongly recommend this one from Johns Hopkins University Press, with all of its important and illuminating addendums from editor Cynthia Wachtell. History, Literature and Women's Studies professors and teachers should take note, because this is a very important contribution to all of those fields. My congratulations to Dr Wachtell. My highest recommendation.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the Cold War memoir, SOLDIER BOY: AT PLAY IN THE ASA… (más)
During WWI, Ellen serves as a nurse in France. She offers several short stories about the cruelty and harshness of war. A viewpoint rarely seen elsewhere. The stories themselves were fairly short, just quick snapshots into a patient, a procedure or an odd situation. She presents a very vivid, very honest point of view, which works well with her subject manner. Overall, highly recommended.
This short nonfiction book packs a powerful punch. Vignettes written by an American nurse about field hospitals during WWI, it is dark and graphic and disturbing. It is all too real.
There are heroes in the book, and there are also just plain people, people who ended up as fodder for war and those who ended up treating them. While emergency treatment for soldiers has changed drastically since the period of this book, and methods of fighting war have changed, the effect on bodies and souls is still devastating.
This is not a book full of hope and feel-good stories of redemption. It is a books of despair and hopelessness, and the timeless, relentless brutality and reality of war.… (más)
There are heroes in the book, and there are also just plain people, people who ended up as fodder for war and those who ended up treating them. While emergency treatment for soldiers has changed drastically since the period of this book, and methods of fighting war have changed, the effect on bodies and souls is still devastating.
This is not a book full of hope and feel-good stories of redemption. It is a books of despair and hopelessness, and the timeless, relentless brutality and reality of war.… (más)
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 7
- También por
- 3
- Miembros
- 120
- Popularidad
- #165,356
- Valoración
- 4.1
- Reseñas
- 12
- ISBNs
- 20
- Idiomas
- 1
When he could stand it no longer, he fired a revolver up through the roof of his mouth, but he made a mess of it. The ball tore out his left eye, and then lodged somewhere under his skull, so they bundled him into an ambulance and carried him, cursing and screaming, to the nearest field hospital.
These are the opening two sentences of the first of fourteen stories. The story goes on to explain that since he failed in his attempt he was to be nursed back to health, using valuable medical supplies, and when he was well enough, put up against a wall and shot.
What La Motte witnessed scenes like this and others that make Johnny Got His Gun seem like a child’s book. La Motte does not seem to have an agenda like many anti-war writers, but wants to bring to light the realities of a romanticized war. Medals were handed out much like candy. It was for the benefit of the morale of the civilian population, that when they saw a soldier walking the streets of Paris missing limbs they would notice the Coss de Guerre pinned on his chest.
Other stories tell of the stench of the hospitals where gangrene and meningitis were winning many of the battles. “A Surgical Triumph” is a very disturbing story on a wounded son of a hairdresser. Modern advances in medical science saved this soldier's life and it is a triumph for the medical community, but is it a triumph on a personal level.
La Motte removes all romantic notions of war as seen from the eyes of a nurse. She tells of the soldiers, medical staff, and the generals who make frequent rounds handing out medals in extremis. Despite motorized ambulances and a serious attempt to take care of the wounded, WWI was a miserable for anyone wounded as it was for anyone in the trenches. History tends to soften our views of the past. In this year, the one hundredth anniversary of World War I, the re-release of La Motte’s book will remind readers that no matter how glorious war is made out to be, there is a very dark and tragic side to every war.
… (más)