The Quack's Daughter: A True Story about the Private Life of a Victorian College Girl

HUDSON VALLEY, N.Y. - March 14, 2013 - PRLog -- In her book The Quack’s Daughter: A True Story about the Private Life of a Victorian College Girl, Greta Nettleton tells for the first time the story of her great-grandmother Cora Keck (1865-1921), an Iowa girl sent to Vassar College, and Cora’s mother, the notorious “quack” and self-made millionaire Mrs. Dr. Rebecca J. Keck (1838-1904). (Mrs. Dr. was used at the time to clarify that the doctor in question was a woman.)

After rescuing a family trunk filled with diaries, photo albums, scrapbooks and sheet music, Nettleton undertook five years of extensive research to bring her family history to life. The result is a compelling biography that provides a remarkably thorough picture of Cora’s life and times through vivid storytelling and 150 images and photographs.

Raised in the gritty Mississippi River city of Davenport, Iowa, Cora Keck was the fourth daughter of the self-described “Greatest Lady Physician of the West.” Her mother had become the Midwest’s most infamous businesswoman by defying the medical establishment during a lucrative career selling her own patent medicine from 1873 to 1900. Her name and career have been erased from the historical record because of the scandal her business created with regular doctors, who had her arrested at least five times for practicing medicine without a license as they tried to squelch her success.

Seeking to elevate the family’s social reputation, Mrs. Dr. Keck decided to send her 19-year old daughter Cora to the most prestigious women’s college in the country, Vassar. Traveling from Iowa to Poughkeepsie, NY in 1884, Cora enrolled as a music student. The book recreates her college life and introduces readers to the diverse and colorful people in Cora’s world. It also offers entertaining insights into Cora and her mother and their different approaches to noncompliance with authority.

Set in an era of surging wealth torn by political controversy over inequality, women’s rights, and widespread panic about domestic terrorists, The Quack’s Daughter illuminates the life of a spirited and charming heroine who ultimately faced a life-and-death crisis that forced her to re-examine her doubts about her mother’s medical integrity.

“As I set out on a purely personal journey to discover the lost stories of the women in my family back in the ‘old country’ of 19th century Iowa, I realized that my great-grandmother’s story touches many themes that are crucial to the wide study of 19th century women’s history in America,” writes Nettleton, “The fundamental similarities between Cora’s life and my own college years were so striking that I have begun to see the 1880s as a departure point for understanding modern American life. We need to own these stories in order to understand ourselves.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Greta Nettleton has edited and written for clients ranging from the World Bank to a software startup serving New York’s Seventh Avenue fashion industry. This is her first book. She holds a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and is currently at work on a biography of Cora’s mother, Mrs. Dr. Rebecca J. Keck, about the tumultuous early years of America’s medical profession. Visit http://www.gretanettleton.com.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: The Quack’s Daughter: A True Story about the Private Life of a Victorian College Girl
Author: Greta Nettleton
Published: December 2012
Paperback, 6x9, 328 pages, $24.95, ISBN 9781300334002
Kindle e-book, $8.99
Visit Cora Keck on Facebook for a sneak peek into her “current” activities. New images are posted each week from Cora’s scrapbooks and diaries in order as she collected and wrote them.