Although Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' novel Doctor Zay (1882) dominates critical discussion of Phelps' interest in woman doctors, preceding it were many little-known writings by Phelps. These writings underscored the achievements of already established women doctors, the imperative of medically educating and training women in the face of pernicious resistance, and the medical woman's symbolic value as an agent of healing in post-Civil War America. An exploration of this largely overlooked early prose demonstrates that Phelps played an instrumental role in legitimizing the American medical woman during a crucial earlier period when the number of women doctors in the United States increased substantially, but the woman doctor remained perhaps the most controversial new presence on the nation's occupational landscape.