As Long As Life: The Memoirs of a Frontier Woman Doctor [Paperback]

Mary Canaga Rowland M.D. (Author), F. A. Loomis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994

"An astonishing, moving and wonderfully absorbing story."

--Dr. Molly Joel Coye

Former Health Director for New Jersey and California

Not only was Dr. Mary Canaga Rowland one of the first woman doctors in America, she was one of the few who practiced in the rough and tumble world of the Wild West. In this riveting, utterly authentic memoir, Dr. Rowland takes us back to the frontier at a time when house calls meant hitching up and heading for lonely cabins to set broken limbs, deliver babies, and battle death with little more than her bare hands. The devastating influenza epidemic of 1918, the Great Depression, and cases of madness, incest, transvestism, and attempted suicide challenged her skills. Murder destroyed her personal life.

These pages speak of pioneer life as it was, reaching from the buffalo drives to the nuclear age. The delightful author is so full of insight, common sense, and fun that you wish she were still around to be your doctor and your friend.

"Opens up a vanished world and makes it live again. . . . Dr. Rowland gives us a detailed picture of the hardships and adventures of daily life, but best of all she gives us a rich sense of the people she knew and cared for."

--Peter S. Hawkins

Professor, Yale University

--This text refers to the mass market paperback edition of this title

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What makes this book of memoirs especially remarkable is the matter-of-fact attitude that Dr. Rowland (1873-1966) takes as she describes events such as studying for her first medical degree from the Women's Medical College of Kansas City, Mo., and getting a divorce. In 1994, women do these things every day-but they did not in the early part of this century. The editor, Rowland's great-great nephew, has done a nice job of arranging the memoirs and has added thoughtful notes to help the reader better understand Rowland's life. From Kansas to Oregon to New York City, Rowland provides an excellent view of medical life at the turn of the century and what it meant to be a career woman and a single mother long before it became a political touchstone. This is more than a medical history; Rowland's story, enlivened by her infectious sense of adventure and her eagerness to move from frontier town to town plying her trade, has touches of humor and a spark of mystery . Her memoirs give the reader a unique perspective on the pioneering spirit that helped build America, when a house call meant driving a wagon in through woods with vague directions and doctors were paid with bartered goods like potatoes.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Dr. Mary Rowland, the so-called original medicine woman, recorded her doctoring and family-raising adventures in the Midwest and western states from the turn of the century through its midpoint. Rowland began composing her memoirs in the 1930s and completed the work in the 1950s; this is the first publication of the memoirs. It's a fascinating story that features a feisty, compassionate doctor with a fine sense of humor who traveled through dust storms and snowstorms by carriage, then automobile, to care for patients. Delivering babies, pulling teeth, treating cancer patients and gunshot wounds, and more were part of her regular day. Insights into the treatment of professional women in the West and the East can be gained as Rowland tells about her postgraduate work in New York. Fans of the Dr. Quinn television show will be elated, but any other reader with a modicum of interest in history or medicine will be equally enthralled by this well-written, neatly edited recollection. Denise Perry Donavin

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 177 pages
• Publisher: Storm Peak Pr (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964135701
• ISBN-13: 978-0964135703
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,462,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully gritty memoirs of a pioneer doctor, September 7, 2000

By 

Marie GG "addicted to reading" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As Long as Life (Mass Market Paperback)

I gave this book to my sister, who is a doctor, and read it myself when I visited her recently. Mary Canaga Rowland immediately hooked me in the first chapter. I enjoyed her details of early medicine and living on the plains and in the west. Not only was she a pioneer in the field of medicine (as one of the first women doctors), but also she was a single mother after her husband was tragically killed only 2 days after their baby was born. Reading this book made me want to read more memoirs of women in this era.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book about an amazing woman., October 21, 1997

By 

Meg Bachman ([e-mail]) (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As Long As Life: The Memoirs of a Frontier Woman Doctor (Paperback)

This book was given to me by a co-worker who mentioned that Dr. Mary Rowland was his great-grandmother. It is a wonderful memoir of a dynamic woman on the frontier of career-oriented women. I was facinated by her first-person accounts of case studies, medical treatments of the day, and especially her insistance of cleanliness, at a time when most in the medical profession knew little to nothing about sterilization. This book is a must read for any one with a layperson's devotion to medical history.

5.0 out of 5 stars As Long As Life, September 4, 2009

By 

Carrie L. Porter - See all my reviews
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This review is from: As Long as Life (Mass Market Paperback)

It was a wonderful book. It arrived in great condition and in a timely fashion. I would order from them again.