Florence Nightingale 1820-1910 by Cecil Woodham-Smith
Florence Nightingale 1820 to 1910 (First Printing)
The First Authoritative and Definitive Biography of the Medical Pioneer Compiled from Restored Private Family Archives
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Florence Nightingale 1820 to 1910
- Author: Cecil Woodham Smith
- Publisher: Constable and Company Limited, London
- Publication Date: 1950
- ISBN-10: Not Applicable
- ISBN-13: Not Applicable
- Edition Details: First Edition, True First Printing.
- Binding: Original publisher premium cloth bound hardcover boards with gold stamped spine lettering, complete with the scarce original illustrated paper dust jacket.
- Physical Format: Octavo, 615 pages. Enhanced with historical frontispiece portraits, comprehensive index tables, and archival document reproductions.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Good
- Exterior and Boards: The original mid century cloth covers are flat and structurally solid with standard minor shelf corner bumping. Gilt spine text is legible. The text block binding remains firm and complete.
- Interior: Clean and uniform throughout. The internal pages are fully intact and clear. Free of modern user highlighting or text underlinings, showing only light and honest age toning consistent with a 1950 printing.
- Protective Preservation: Professionally enclosed in a heavy duty, premium archival cellophane cover, fully shielding the exterior boards from environmental friction or dust accumulation.
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The Dust Jacket: Good
- Condition details: Present and structurally intact. Displays a slightly faded appearance across the spine section along with visible edge wear and minor chipping at the extremities, completely typical for a delicate paper jacket of this era.
Synopsis and Historical Value
Published in 1950, this masterwork stands as the first authoritative biography of Florence Nightingale, permanently altering the historical landscape surrounding the founder of modern nursing. Drawing from a tremendous amount of newly uncovered material including private family correspondence and her own exhaustive personal notes, Cecil Woodham Smith creates a powerful and impassioned portrait. The narrative deconstructs the romanticized myth of the gentle lady with the lamp, revealing instead a fierce woman of aristocratic background who possessed an incredible aptitude for administrative organization and an unyielding courage matched by harsh impatience. The book tracks her journey from her initial mystic sense of mission at age seventeen through a bitter family break, her grueling apprenticeship in squalid mid century institutions, and her historic leadership during the calamitous Crimean campaign. Confronting systemic resentment from military officers and doctors in the filth of fever ridden barrack hospitals, her subsequent return to England sparked a lifetime of political battles to reform public health standards. This true first printing remains a cornerstone addition for medical historians, biographical archivists, and serious collectors of nineteenth century British history.
Author Profile: Cecil Woodham Smith
The author was a highly distinguished British historian and biographer who achieved international academic acclaim for her meticulously researched volumes on the Victorian era. Educated at Saint Hilda's College, Oxford, where she read English Literature, she spent years unearthing unmapped private family archives to ensure absolute historical precision. Her landmark biographical works, including this text and her definitive history of the Great Famine, are celebrated globally by curators for combining absolute scholarly authority with a compelling, dramatic narrative pace.
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