Laura N. Wood
Laura N. Wood was an accomplished American journalist and biographer, born on March 15, 1911, in St. Louis, Missouri. Coming from a well-off family, she was able to pursue higher education during the Great Depression, earning her bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1932. Wood established a successful journalism career and wrote for several prominent periodicals. After marrying W. Crosby Roper, Jr. in 1940, she published her first biography, "Walter Reed: Doctor in Uniform," in 1943, which highlighted Reed's groundbreaking work on mosquito control and yellow fever. This was followed by biographies on notable figures such as Raymond Ditmars and Louis Pasteur, the latter detailing Pasteur's revolutionary contributions to microbiology. Although her writing output decreased after the late 1940s, she resurfaced with "FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmstead" in 1973. In addition to her literary contributions, Wood was also involved in volunteer work and photography. She passed away on December 5, 2003, in Cotuit, Massachusetts.
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Subject Terms
Laura N. Wood
Author
- Born: March 15, 1911
- Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
- Died: December 5, 2003
- Place of death: Cotuit, Massachusetts
Biography
Laura Newbold Wood was born on March 15, 1911, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father, Benjamin A. Wood, was a lawyer, and her mother was Edith T. Wood, née Smith. Her family was sufficiently well off that she was able to continue her education even during the difficult years of the Great Depression, when many young women her age had to quit school and hire themselves out as servants or clerks in order to earn a living. She attended Vassar College, where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1932. With her education she was able to launch a successful journalistic career for herself, and was a regular contributor to a number of noted periodicals of the time.
On July 20, 1940, Wood married W. Crosby Roper, Jr., who was—like her father—a lawyer. They had a daughter, Laura, and a son, Crosby Newbold Roper. Shortly after her marriage, she set her hand to writing book-length nonfiction, and in 1943, her first full- length biography was published, Walter Reed: Doctor in Uniform. In it, she detailed how Walter Reed established that the mosquito did indeed carry yellow fever, and in the process placed himself at grave risk of dying of the very disease he was trying to prevent. However, he not only survived, but was also able to use the authority he had gained through his bravery to put into effect mosquito-control measures. These measures were critical to the timely completion of the Panama Canal, an effort that had been stalled for years as the result of this disease. Because Wood had already established her journalistic reputation prior to her marriage, she published the book under her maiden name, although this was well before the time that the practice of professional women retaining their maiden names, even solely for professional purposes, was routine and acceptable.
The following year, Wood produced another biography, Raymond Ditmars: His Exciting Career. In 1948, she produced a biography of Louis Pasteur, who, like Walter Reed, had been critical in developing modern theories of disease contagion. She detailed not only his famous rabies vaccine and milk-purification technique, but lesser-known experiments such as the ones disproving the old theory of spontaneous generation, which suggested that inanimate objects, particularly mud and boiled broth, could give rise to life without any sort of seed or spore to transmit it. After that time Wood’s writing was almost entirely confined to the occasional journal article until 1973, when she suddenly produced FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmstead.
In addition to her journalism and editorial work, Wood was active as an amateur photographer and a volunteer in her children’s schools. She died on December 5, 2003, in Cotuit, Massachussets.