Mercy and Madness is available at fine booksellers everywhere, including:
Mercy and Madness:
Dr. Mary Archard Latham’s Tragic Fall from Female Physician to Felon
Spokane, Washington’s first female physician, Mary Archard Latham, moved to the community in 1888 with her three sons— leaving her husband behind in Ohio. She sought a better climate for her health and worked tirelessly for the health of all of Spokane’s citizens, but particularly women and children and especially the poor.
Then, in 1905 she was accused, arrested, and circumstantially convicted of arson and sentenced to four years of hard labor in the state penitentiary. While awaiting transfer to prison, she escaped with the help of supposed friends and with her horse and buggy fled alone into the forests of Northern Idaho, where she remarkably eluded a manhunt for a week before being captured at an old bachelor’s ranch and sent to prison.
She returned to Spokane, where she practiced medicine for a short time, then retired before dying in 1917. Mercy and Madness tells the story of the captivating, outrageous, and sometimes-sorrowful life of Dr. Mary Latham in her own words.
ISBN 9781493059744
TwoDot Books
Imprint of Globe Pequot Publishing Group, Inc.
What they say about Mercy and Madness:
Meticulously researched but told in an engaging and lively manner, Hodgins gracefully unspools the complicated and at times messy life of Dr. Mary Latham.
– Ann Weisgarber, author of The Promise
While important community-building accomplishments are usually attributed by historians to male businessmen and politicians, Hodgins illuminates Dr. Mary Latham’s contributions to her adopted city that most affected the families who settled in Spokane.
– Candace Wellman, author of Interwoven Lives: Indigenous Mothers of Salish Coast Communities
