Description

Dr. Mabel E. Elliott, an American physician, served in Turkey, Armenia, and Greece from 1919 to 1923, helping Armenian and Greek refugees and orphans following World War I. She saw unimaginable suffering and hunger while caring for thousands of refugees after the Armenian Genocide.

Rose Wilder Lane, journalist and novelist, worked for the American Red Cross and Near East Relief from 1919 to 1923. Dr. Elliott agreed to work on a book for Near East Relief and the two collaborated on a sweeping memoir that combined Dr. Elliott's diaries and letters with Rose Wilder Lane's research on Armenia and its history. The result was a book that became one of the best-known post-World War I memoirs. Lane is most remembered as Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter, serving as editor for her mother's Little House series of books.

Dr. Elliott's engaging reports and letters were a publicity mainstay for the Near East Relief and American Women's Hospital organizations to help tell the refugee and orphan story to the American public. Dr. Elliott's Battle of Marash siege diary is a harrowing tale of her three-day trek leading Armenian refugees across mountains in a blizzard. Rose Wilder Lane wrote articles about Armenia and Greece for several American magazines, including Good Housekeeping, McClure's, and Asia.

Lane's collaboration with Dr. Elliott on her book was hidden for more than a century, uncovered during research for Dr. Elliott's 2025 biography, Unbreakable Healer. Lane's rumored "Armenia book," thought lost or never finished, had been found.

Dr. Elliott's forthright tales and Rose Wilder Lane's soaring prose make for a book that places the reader in the middle of America's efforts to care for refugees and orphans in Turkey, Armenia, and Greece a century ago.