Clara Barrus

Clara Barrus (1864–1931) was an American physician and author. She is best known for her biography of the nature essayist John Burroughs (1837–1921).

Biography

Barrus was born on August 8, 1864, in Port Byron, New York. She attended medical school at Boston University and graduated in 1888. After several years in private practice, Barrus took a job at the Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital for the Insane in 1893. She was a psychiatrist there from 1893 through 1910. She also taught at the Woman's Medical College of New York City.

In 1901 Barrus met John Burroughs and his wife Ursula North Burroughs (1836–1917). Sources describe Barrus' and John Burroughs' relationship in a variety of ways, ranging from "devoted follower", "friend, secretary, biographer, and almost constant traveling companion", to "the great love of his life".

Barrus was also the author of Nursing for the Insane published in 1908 by Macmillan and the autobiographical A Life Unveiled: By a Child of the Drumlins published by Doubleday in 1922.