Doctor Nellie: The autobiography of Dr. Helen MacKnight Doyle

Barely twenty-one years old, Helen MacKnight M.D. in 1895 hung out her shingle in the frontier town of Bishop in eastern California. One of the west's first woman physicians, she entered the profession at a time when women were not at all welcome. With much grit & little fuss, transcending insults with grace & humor, she became the beloved Doctor Nellie of Owens Valley. Her story spans the continent, beginning in 1878 when her father, obsessed by tales of gold in the Far West, abruptly sent his wife & five-year-old Nellie to the family farm in upstate New York & headed for the mines at Bodie. It chronicles the tragedies & adventures that befell one family in the vast drama of our country's westward migration. Vivid accounts of warmth & happiness at Grandmother's farm; homesteading on the harsh Dakota prairie; the Gay Nineties in Old San Francisco. Real people - Paiute Indians, pioneer ranchers, prospectors, drifters, winners & losers. Foreword by Dr. Nellie's friend, Mary Austin. Received awards & wide acclaim when first published in 1934 under the title A CHILD WENT FORTH.