author
Emma F. Angell (Emma Frances Angell) Drake
1849–1934
A physician, reformer, and suffrage advocate, she wrote practical early-1900s books on women’s health, marriage, and motherhood. Her work blends medical training with a strong interest in education and social change.
1 Audiobook
What a Young Wife Ought to Know
by Emma F. Angell (Emma Frances Angell) Drake
About the author
Born in 1849, Emma Frances Angell Drake built an unusually wide-ranging life as a doctor, writer, temperance advocate, and supporter of women’s rights. A biographical sketch of her life describes her as far more than any single label could capture, noting her work in medicine, reform, authorship, and public life.
Her books include What a Young Wife Ought to Know, Maternity Without Suffering, and What a Woman of Forty-Five Ought to Know, works that aimed to give women accessible guidance on health, marriage, and family life. In the early editions of her writing, she is identified as a medical doctor and as someone who had taught and worked in medical education, including obstetrics.
Drake later became active in Idaho public life as well, and she is remembered as part of the state’s suffrage and reform movements. She died in 1934, leaving behind a career that connected medicine, publishing, and activism in a way that still makes her stand out today.