Few women have matched the achievements of Isabel Barrows — as a woman and as a humanitarian. She was the first woman eye specialist in the United States, the first woman to work as a stenographer for Congress, the first woman to become private secretary to the head of our State Department. Her brilliant work as an editor and writer earned her world-wide fame as a social reformer. A woman who refused to allow the rigid conventions of the Victorian Age to thwart her vision and her priceless gifts, her greatest accomplishment was the legacy she left of an unquenchable and abundant spirit.

As a girl in New England, Isabel loved to make rounds with her father, a doctor, who encouraged her self-reliance. At eighteen she married a missionary and accompanied him to India. His tragic death, while still a young man, shocked Isabel, but she resolved that her life would have purpose. In 1866 she began to study medicine, even though she was denied the right to earn a degree because of her sex.

Later she married a brilliant young secretary, Sam Barrows, and from him learned the intricate new "language" of shorthand. When Sam fell ill while working for Secretary of State Seward, Isabel took his place at a job considered inappropriate for a woman. Her ability as a stenographer was so outstanding that she was asked to work for Congress, but with the proviso that she disguise her sex by signing all documents with her initials only. Refusing to give up her desire to become a doctor, she attended the University of Vienna medical school where she specialized in ophthalmology.

When she began practicing in Washtington, D.C., she again faced discrimination, but her surgical skill and perseverance won her a large following. Later, with her husband, she was co-editor of The Christian Register, and influential Unitarian newspaper, where she wielded her pen with the same superb skill she displayed with her scalpel.

As doctor, stenographer, editor, writer and world traveler, Isabel Barrows constantly sought to strip away prejudices and make the world a better place for all. The story of her accomplishments is an inspiration to young people today.

From the dust jacket