A selection from over 10,000 letters, written by Florence Nightingale, evoking her public and private personality and revealing her troubled relationships with her mother and older sister as well as her long search for religious peace. Major issues such as public health, care of the ordinary soldier and the collecting of reliable statistics are covered. Her correspondents included many distinguished public figures of the time - such as Sidney Herbert, Edwin Chadwick, Harriet Martineau and John Stuart Mill. Martha Vicinus is author of Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women 1850-1920.