""We are witnessing a phase in the evolution of humanity, a phase called War'and the slow, onward progress stirs up the slime in the shallows, and this is the Backwash of War. It is very ugly.""'Ellen N. La Motte
In September 1916, as World War I advanced into a third deadly year, an American woman named Ellen N. La Motte published a collection of stories about her experience as a war nurse. Deemed damaging to morale, The Backwash of War was immediately banned in both England and France and later censored in wartime America. At once deeply unsettling and darkly humorous, this compelling book presents a unique view of the destruction wrought by war to the human body and spirit. Long forgotten, it is an astounding book by an extraordinary woman and merits a place among major works of WWI literature.
This volume gathers, for the first time, La Motte's published writing about the First World War. In addition to Backwash, it includes three long-forgotten essays. Annotated for a modern audience, the book features both a comprehensive introduction to La Motte's war-time writing in its historical and literary context and the first extended biography of the ""lost"" author of this ""lost classic."" Not only did La Motte boldly breach decorum in writing The Backwash of War, but she also forcefully challenged societal norms in other equally remarkable ways, as a debutante turned Johns HopkinsGÇôtrained nurse, pathbreaking public health advocate and administrator, suffragette, journalist, writer, lesbian, and self-proclaimed anarchist.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chronology
Photographs
The Backwash of War: The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse
Ellen N. La Motte's Introduction to 1916 Edition
Ellen N. La Motte's Introduction to 1934 Edition
Stories: Heroes La Patrie Reconnaissante The Hole in the Hedge Alone A Belgian Civilian The Interval Women and Wives Pour La Patrie Locomotor Ataxia A Surgical Triumph At the Telephone A Citation An Incident Esmeralda
Essays by Ellen N. La Motte:
""Experiences in the American Ambulance Hospital, Neuilly, France"" ""An American Nurse in Paris"" ""Under Shell-Fire at Dunkirk"" ""A Joy Ride""
Biography
Significant Publications Notes
""The Wachtell edition - a fascinating mix of history, literature and women's studies - is a very important piece of scholarship, deserving of a wide audience... When one thinks of literary classics of WWI, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and perhaps E.E. Cummings' The Enormous Room usually come to mind... And now there's this one, The Backwash of War: An Extraordinary American Nurse in World War I, which came before any of those others... My congratulations to Dr. Wachtell. My highest recommendation.""
