Ava Helen Pauling

de Mina Carson

Ava Helen Pauling's rich career as an activist for civil rights and liberties, against nuclear testing, and for peace, feminism, and environmental stewardship is best understood in the context of her enduring partnership with her famous husband, Linus Pauling. In this long-awaited biography, Mina Carson reveals the complex and fascinating history behind one of the great love stories of the twentieth century. Though she began her public career in the shadow of her spouse, Ava Helen soon found herself tugged between supporting Linus in his career and wanting him to embrace the social and political causes she felt passionate about. As a young woman in the 1920s, she believed it was her destiny to accept duties as a mother and homemaker. However, neither of those roles fully satisfied the feisty and willful Ava Helen. Her more complete identity emerged over decades, as she evolved into an influential activist. Many aspects of Ava Helen Pauling's story were S shared by countless American women of her generation and the generations surrounding her. Despite new educational opportunities, they were expected to conform to the same limited social roles dictated by the gender ideology of the nineteenth century. When second wave feminism erupted in the 1960s, its force did not come solely from the young women rebelling against their elders' rules and limitations, but also from the frustrated dreams of those elders themselves. Ava Helen Pauling: Partner, Activist, Visionary is a welcome addition to the literature on women's and family history and the peace and reform movements, and it is an important complement to writings about Linus Pauling.