Ellen N. (Ellen Newbold) La Motte

Born in 1873 and trained as a nurse, she became one of the first American nurses to serve in a French field hospital during World War I. Drawing on that experience, she wrote The Backwash of War (1916), a book of linked sketches that stood out for its blunt, antiwar perspective at a time when patriotic writing was far more common.

She was also active beyond the battlefield. La Motte wrote nonfiction on public health and later traveled in Asia, where she reported on the opium trade and colonial politics. Across her work, she showed a steady interest in people pushed to the margins and in systems that caused harm.

Today, she is often remembered not only as a nurse and author, but as an unusually clear-eyed witness. Her writing avoids sentimentality and stays focused on what war, illness, and power can do to ordinary lives.