In this Book
- Deaf American Prose 1830-1930
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: Gallaudet University Press
summary
This new anthology showcases the works of Deaf writers during a critical formative period in their history. From 1830 to 1930, these writers conveyed their impressions in autobiographies, travel narratives, romances, nonfiction short stories, editorials, descriptive pieces, and other forms of prose. The quick, often evocative snapshots and observations featured here, many explicitly addressing deafness and sign language, reflect their urgency to record Deaf American life at this pivotal time. Using sensory details, dialogue, characterization, narrative movement, and creative prose, these writers emphasized the capabilities of Deaf people to counter events that threatened their way of life.
The volume opens with “The Orphan Mute,” a sentimental description of the misfortune of deaf people written by John Robertson Burnet in 1835. Less than 50 years later, James Denison, the only Deaf delegate at the 1880 Convention of Instructors of the Deaf in Milan, published his “impressions” that questioned the majority’s passage of a strict oralism agenda. In 1908, Thomas Flowers wrote “I was a little human plant,” a paean to education without irony despite the concurrent policy banning African Americans from attending Gallaudet College. These and a host of other Deaf writers—Laurent Clerc, Kate Farlow, Edmund Booth, Laura Redden Searing, Freda W. Bauman, Vera Gammon, Isaac H. Benedict, James Nack, John Carlin, Joseph Mount and many more—reveal the vitality and resilience of Deaf writers in an era of wrenching change.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. iii-iv
- Acknowledgments
- p. xiii
- John Robertson Burnet
- The Orphan Mute
- pp. 11-17
- My Sister’s Funeral
- pp. 18-21
- James Nack
- Law Proceedings
- pp. 22-24
- The Last Words of a Bachelor
- pp. 24-29
- Laurent Clerc
- Unknown
- The Wonderful Coffee-Mill
- pp. 33-35
- Isaac H. Benedict
- Aerial Navigation by a Deaf-Mute
- pp. 36-42
- Mary St. Cloud Belches
- A Family History
- pp. 44-47
- Joseph Mount, “Joe the Jersey Mute”
- A Leaf from a Teacher’s Diary
- pp. 51-54
- John Carlin
- Excerpt from The Scratchsides Family
- pp. 55-58
- Howard Glyndon (Laura Redden Searing)
- The Realm of Singing
- pp. 60-65
- William B. Swett
- James Denison
- Impressions of the Milan Convention
- pp. 81-88
- Edwin (Edmund) Booth
- Booth’s Reminiscences of Gallaudet
- pp. 90-91
- Kate M. Farlow
- W.C.
- Scene in a Railroad Station
- pp. 105-106
- Frieda W. Bauman
- A Romance of Far Away Cuba
- pp. 107-111
- Hypatia Boyd
- What One Girl Hears and Sees
- pp. 112-116
- Douglas Tilden
- Reflections of a Deaf-Mute Philosopher
- pp. 122-125
- Helen Keller
- What I Am Doing
- pp. 127-132
- Alice C. Jennings
- Douglas Tilden
- Alice Taylor Terry
- Bro. Hart’s “Something Greater”
- pp. 150-155
- Thomas Flowers
- Life after Graduation
- pp. 157-158
- Howard L. Terry
- A Sophomore’s Revenge
- pp. 160-163
- Helen Keller
- New Vision for the Blind
- pp. 164-165
- Margaret Prescott Montague
- The Little Sign for Friend
- pp. 167-175
- The Enchanted Princess
- pp. 175-187
- Alice Taylor Terry
- Sound—Why Not Let It Alone?
- pp. 188-192
- Vera Gammon
- The Three Doors to Knowledge
- pp. 193-196
- Guie Leo Deliglio
- The Test of the Heart
- pp. 198-202
- Miss Hester of Sunset Valley
- pp. 202-209
- George W. Veditz
- De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
- pp. 211-213
- Howard L. Terry
- James F. Brady
- Pro and Con
- pp. 228-232
- A Christmas Story
- pp. 232-235
- Albert V. Ballin
- James F. Brady
- By Their Signs Ye Shall Know Them
- pp. 242-244
- Albert V. Ballin
- Roger Demosthenes O’Kelly
- A Fight with a Highwayman
- pp. 249-252
- Albert V. Ballin
- The Life of a Lousy Extra
- pp. 253-256
- Howard T. Hofsteater
Additional Information
ISBN
9781563685668
Related ISBN(s)
9781563685651
MARC Record
OCLC
861915277
Pages
304
Launched on MUSE
2013-08-13
Language
English
Open Access
No