"INSPIRED BY BLACKWELL, ELIZABETH GARRETT ANDERSON OPENED THE MEDICAL PROFESSION TO WOMEN IN BRITAIN, JUST AS BLACKWELL HAD DONE IN THE UNITED STATES": FIRST EDITION OF THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE FIRST BRITISH WOMAN DOCTOR—"A TRAILBLAZER FOR WOMEN"

ANDERSON, Louisa Garrett. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson 1836-1917. London: Faber and Faber, (1939). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $850.

First edition of the first biography of Garrett Anderson, the first British woman M.D., a pioneer who "did more for the cause of women in medicine in England than any other."

Dr. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson "was a trailblazer for women" (Clare Marx, President, Royal College of Surgeons). On meeting Blackwell at the age of 23, she decided, against all odds, to become a doctor. Denied entrance to British medical schools, she approached the Society of Apothecaries, whose charter granted a license to "all persons." But on completing the training, the society "tried to back out of its earlier promise." Only when threatened with a lawsuit was she allowed "to take the examinations. She found them 'too easy to feel elated about' and earned a higher score than anyone else." With her spot on the Medical Register she opened a medical practice. In 1872 she founded the New Hospital for Women, the first British hospital staffed only by medical women, and appointed Blackwell, her mentor, professor of gynecology. Still determined to earn an M.D. degree, she took the examination at the University of Paris, which newly admitted women. Having earned her M.D. the British Medical Association finally admitted her in 1873, but when that "outraged many male physicians… it voted in 1878 not to allow any more women to join it"(Young, A to Z, 8). At her death in 1917, she was hailed as a pathfinder who "did more for the cause of women in medicine in England than any other." Authored by her daughter. With frontispiece and seven full-page illustrations.

Book fine, with expert reinforcement to rear inner hinge; only light edge-wear, faint soiling to about-fine price-clipped dust jacket.