Mary Edwards Walker (1832 1919) was a reform activist so outspoken she was nearly shunned and lost to history despite being one of the most famous (some might say infamous) women of her day. While Walker fought for abolition, Black education and temperance, and against the death penalty, she was particularly focused on women's suffrage and the right to divorce. Born in Oswego, New York, Walker graduated from Syracuse Medical College and served as a Civil War doctor, becoming the only woman to win a Medal of Honor. She was best known for advocating clothing reform. She wore a knee-length dress over pants, resulting in constant derision and arrests for dressing like a man. Later, she got involved in Democratic Party politics and and in 1881 became the first woman to run for Senate. This clearly written chronological biography, full of lively quotes from Walker's writings and her frequent mentions in the press, is ideal for research projects. Black-and-white illustrations and sidebars provide context. Readers will appreciate connections to modern issues of gender discrimination, equality, and expression.

A biography of a woman born "one hundred years before her time."Born to freethinking White abolitionist farmers in New York's Finger Lakes region in 1832, Mary Edwards Walker became an early advocate for women's rights, especially clothing reform. She eschewed corsets as unhealthy and endured ridicule for wearing loose shortened skirts over long trousers. She became one of the country's first female physicians when she graduated from Syracuse Medical College in 1855 and, after a brief, unhappy marriage, overcame considerable prejudice to become a surgeon for the Union Army during the Civil War, a part-time spy, Confederate prisoner, and the only female recipient of the Medal of Honor. But despite the award, which she cherished, the government for years refused her the pension male soldiers received. Walker became a popular paid lecturer, but her outspoken personality, insistence on dress reform, and open criticism of some influential suffragists' lack of support for racial equality eventually caused her to be ostracized by the leaders of the suffrage movement and all but forgotten to history. Mary's attire and appearance became more conventionally masculine as she aged, but she does not seem to have regarded herself as transgender. Latta's carefully researched story, drawn primarily from contemporary accounts and featuring many photographs, places Walker in the context of her time and shows her as the complicated and principled person she was.An eye-opening and engaging tribute to a fascinating historical figure. (author's note, source notes, selected bibliography, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)