Balm in Gilead (book) facts for kids
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First edition
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| Author | Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Radcliffe Biography Series |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publisher | Addison-Wesley, Spine Lean edition |
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Publication date
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1988 |
| Pages | 321 |
| ISBN | 978-0201093124 |
| OCLC | 462905172 |
Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer is Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot's 1988 biography of her mother, Dr. Margaret Morgan Lawrence, who was one of the first black women to graduate from Cornell University and Columbia University Medical School.
Background
Lawrence-Lightfoot developed the project in collaboration with her mother, through a series of taped conversations. She published the book with Addison-Wesley in October 1988, as part of the Radcliffe Biography Series.
Content
The book examines four generations of Lawrence-Lightfoot's family, following her mother's childhood (primarily in Vicksburg, Mississippi), her move to Harlem to finish high school while living with her grandmother, her college education at Cornell University then medical school at Columbia University, then her eventual career as a pediatrician, then psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Phyllis Crockett described Balm in Gilead as "the story of how Dr. Margaret Morgan Lawrence became who she is: a successful retired child psychiatrist, widow of the equally successful sociologist Dr. Charles Lawrence, and mother of three children who are successful in their careers. The book probes how she achieved that success despite the psychological scars of racism and sexism."
