ABSTRACT
Humanitarian, Boston: Badger, 1922 As the titles of the books listed above will demonstrate, studies of Clara Barton’s life and accomplishments have tended toward hagiography, especially until the mid-1980s. Barton’s pluck in the face of danger, her willingness to sidestep convention, her indomitable spirit-all true, and all admirable-bound early writers with such awe that they could not see her as a real, complex, imperfect woman. Interestingly, some of the first works to treat the more difficult sides of her personality were biographies written for young readers.
