My Name Is Mary Sutter: A Novel

Robin Oliveira (Author), Kimberly Farr (Narrator)

ISBN 10: 0307748456 ISBN 13: 9780307748454

Publisher: Books on Tape, 2000

Synopsis

Traveling to Civil War-era Washington, D.C. to tend wounded soldiers and pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon, headstrong midwife Mary receives guidance from two smitten doctors and resists her mother's pleas for her to return home. A first novel. Simultaneous.

About this title

Review:

Ten Books That Helped Me to Write My Name Is Mary Sutter

The following is by no means an exhaustive accounting of the myriad books that helped me to understand not only the Civil War and its effect on its participants, but also the 19th century and its transportation systems, cities, and values. If I were to inventory my bibliography it its entirety, the list would go on for pages and pages. Numerous rare books, diaries, surgeons’ manuals and government documents aided my research, including, for example, Hermann Haupt’s excellent memoirs and the surgery manual mentioned in My Name Is Mary Sutter. To compose this suggested reading list, I sampled my bookshelf. Some of these are reference books, some memoir, some great narratives of history. The books are readily available, with the exception of The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, which, however, is obtainable either through inter-library loan or in many libraries’ rare books collections. And finally, I would consider myself remiss if I did not include one very special work of fiction that influenced me tremendously as a writer, which I have listed first.

--Robin Oliveira

1) The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard

2) The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, all six volumes (Now available as The Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War, but I used the original volumes to do my research)

3) Too Afraid to Cry: Maryland Civilians in the Antietam Campaign by Kathleen A. Ernst

4) Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (The History of New York City) by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace

5) An Albany Girlhood by Huybertie Pruyn Hamlin

6) Our Army Nurses by Mary Gardner Holland

7) Revelle in Washington, 1860-1865 by Margaret Leech

8) The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865 by E. B. Long and Barbara Long

9) Mr. Lincoln’s City: An Illustrated Guide to the Civil War Sites of Washington by Richard M. Lee

10) Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War by George Worthington Adams

(Photo of Robin Oliveira © Fred Milkie, Jr.)

About the Author:

Robin Oliveria received an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and was awarded the James Jones First Novel Fellowship for a work-in-progress for My Name Is Mary Sutter. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and two children.

About this edition

• Publisher: Books on Tape
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0307748456
• ISBN 13: 9780307748454
• Binding: Audio CD