More than Gold in California

Mary Bennett Ritter was a farmer’s daughter who in the 1880s defied all conventions to pursue her passion: to receive medical training and become a physician. Ritter’s memoir is a riveting account of her accomplishments and a revealing peek into an earlier era through her keen sense of observation, humor, savvy, and her courage to challenge gender norms. It is filled with adventures— house calls via horse and buggy rides through the dark streets of Berkeley; a spurned lover’s suicide; a near dro