Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology

Laura C. Redden (1840–1923)

49  * Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787–1851), with Laurent Clerc, founded the first permanent school for the Deaf in America. Redden’s poem recounts the terrible lot of Deaf people before Gallaudet came along and lifted them up. Gallaudet became the most frequently celebrated figure in nineteenth-century Deaf America, and he was frequently described as the savior of Deaf people. Harlan Lane has likened Gallaudet to Abraham Lincoln in that Lincoln was the most important figure in black history until the black community’s discourse became strong enough to put black figures in his stead. Later in the twentieth century, when Deaf people gained more access to their history, Laurent Clerc, the Deaf counterpart to Gallaudet, gradually gained ground and replaced Gallaudet as the savior figure. Laura C. Redden (1840–1923) Only a very few Deaf people have made writing their vocation, and Laura Redden is among the most successful of them. Because of societal bias against women in the professions, she wrote many of her poems and articles, which were published in the most popular magazines, under the name Howard Glyndon. She holds the distinction of being the only Deaf person to have a town named in her honor—Glyndon, Minnesota. Since Redden treated much of her work as merchandise to be sold for mass consumption, she did not often write on deafness. When she did, however, she created a valuable allegory (The Realm of Singing) and several poems that stand as classic examples of two genres found in scores of other poems by Deaf poets. “My Story” is a lamentation on deafness, and “Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet” is dedicatory verse that celebrates teachers of the Deaf.* While “Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet” is perfectly commercial, the lamentation in “My Story” may have held genuine meaning for Redden, who had to cope with becoming deaf at age eleven instead of in early childhood. But the poem distinguishes itself in that she saw beyond her grief at her loss, realizing that it could hardly compare to the troubles in the world around her. Laura C. Redden 50 Laura Catherine Redden began her writing career while a student at the Missouri School for the Deaf, where she enrolled four years after spinal meningitis rendered her deaf in 1851. Soon after graduating in 1858, Redden served as a columnist and editor of a church newspaper. In the tense political climate leading up to the Civil War, she decided to work as a journalist rather than marry a Presbyterian minister to whom she was twice engaged. The St. Louis Republican sent her to Washington, D.C., as a war correspondent. By writing notes back and forth, she interviewed many notable subjects, including Abraham Lincoln, and published a collection of short biographies of members of the House of Representatives . In 1864, Redden published a collection of her war poems on the subscription plan. In 1865 she embarked on a long sojourn in Europe, during which she continued to write for American newspapers. Upon her return, Redden found a job in New York City at the Evening Mail, published widely in leading magazines, and, in 1873, published another volume of poetry, Sounds from Secret Chambers. She married Edward Searing, a lawyer, and they had a daughter, Elsa. Because of health concerns and because the marriage was not working, Laura and Elsa moved to California. In 1921, to resurrect her mother’s literary reputation, Elsa assembled a collection of Redden’s work as Echoes of Other Days. ...