Helen Dore Boylston

Helen Dore Boylston was a prominent American author, who was famous for writing young adult, nonfiction, and memoir, and fiction novels. She was particularly well known for her 2 book series, the Sue Barton and the Carol Page series. Author Boylston was born on April 4, 1895 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She spent most of her childhood days there. As she was a very mischievous child, Boylston was nicknamed as Troub. She studied for one year at the Simmons College, Boston. Author Boylston wanted to study medicine like her dad, but she chose nursing because it had a short training period. Later, Boylston completed her graduation from the Massachusetts General Hospital in the course of nursing in 1915. Immediately after, Boylston sailed to France as a team member of Harvard Medical Unit for serving in World War I. She used to nurse the wounded soldiers at a local hospital and specialized in as an anesthetist. Author Boylston went on to reach a captain’s rank. She described her experiences during her service in a book that was released in 1927. Following the Armistice of 1918, author Boylston stayed in Europe and worked towards providing service to the civilians in Poland, Italy, Germany, Albania, and Russia for a period of 2 years. During the same time, she got acquainted with Rose Wilder Lane, and became a close friend of her. Author Boylston continued to work as a nurse after returning to General Hospital in Massachusetts. She taught anesthesiology to the students at the hospital and later became the department’s director. After that, Boylston became a psychiatric nurse in New York City and then a head nurse in Connecticut. It was not before the mid 1920s that started focusing on her writing career. Her first book, Sister : War Diary of A Nurse, gives a detailed account of her personal experiences during the war times. She collaborated with Rose Lane and wrote a book based on their time spent together in European excursion of 1926. This book, called Travels with Zenobia, was published in the year 1982. The book explores the experiences of the two friends while traveling to Albania from Paris in a car that they had named Zenobia. Boylston wrote this novel long after she wrote the Carol Pafe and Sue Barton series, during the last couple of years of her life.