Deaf American Prose 1830-1930

Foreword

ix Foreword Christopher Krentz This volume offers us vivid glimpses of deaf Americans’ experiences between 1830 and 1930. By bringing more writing by deaf authors from this period to light, editors Jennifer Nelson and Kristen Harmon enable them to communicate with us directly, to offer intriguing views into their lives, opinions, and imaginations. Collected here is prose by such eminent figures as Laurent Clerc, who cofounded the first permanent school for deaf students in the nation; Laura Redden Searing, a deaf journalist who interviewed Abraham Lincoln and other leaders during the Civil War; Helen Keller, the famed deaf-blind writer and lecturer who graduated from Radcliffe; Douglas Tilden, a successful sculptor; Albert Ballin, a deaf actor who tried to make his way in Hollywood during the silent film era; and others. We get to know these people in a new way. Who knew that Tilden, creator of such powerful statuary, had such a quirky sense of humor? Or that Ballin was hit by a car? The volume also introduces a variety of lesser-known talent, each of whom emerges as a distinct individual, demonstrating the rich heterogeneity of the deaf community. While the literary quality of these pieces varies, taken together, they provide a remarkable look into deaf people’s past in the United States. To appreciate such works properly, we should remember that most of these writers were bilingual (in American Sign Language and written English), and for many, English was a second language acquired visually rather than aurally. Perhaps not surprisingly , some of the authors here were late deafened, meaning that they became deaf after they learned spoken English. For example, John Burnet, Edmund Booth, and Laura Redden Searing lost their hearing at age four or thereafter. Others, such as Laurent Clerc, John Carlin, and Keller, were born deaf or became deaf in infancy, which makes their written achievements all the more impressive. One important aspect of these works is how they mediate the pressing controversy over the use of sign language versus vocal speech in deaf education and among deaf people. As scholars have shown, the period from 1830 to 1930 in America witnessed not only the emergence of a vibrant deaf community centered around sign language x Foreword and separate schools for deaf students, but also, later in the nineteenth century, a campaign against sign by so-called oralists who preferred that deaf people communicate by speech and speechreading. In deaf people’s prose, we can discover a discourse over the value of sign and speech, and there is no easy consensus. Many authors here strongly support sign language, especially earlier in the period. John Burnet, in his 1835 story “The Orphan Mute,” depicts a previously isolated deaf girl, Mary, who jubilantly discovers the accessible language of sign at school: “the air was literally swarming with the creations of the mind; events past and future, thoughts, feelings and wishes, seemed floating around her, and that knowledge which she had hitherto sought so eagerly, and often so vainly, now knocked continually for admittance .” Through sign, Mary gains not only heady access to information, but also to a warm community of peers. For his part, Laurent Clerc recounts meeting an uneducated deaf woman in France who could hardly communicate with anyone but her mother. He relates how he used manual communication (presumably mostly gestures and iconic signs) to have an in-depth conversation with her. “The language of signs [is] universal and as simple as nature herself,” he asserts, underscoring the power and value of sign. In contrast, later in the nineteenth century some authors, usually writing from a hearing perspective, give unabashed support to oralism and speech. Laura Redden Searing, who became deaf at age eleven and was reportedly so embarrassed at her strained and unnatural voice that she refused to speak for years, presents a sentimental tale where a deaf boy astonishes his hearing mother by vocally wishing her a happy Christmas at the end. Helen Keller, who famously began to learn English through words fingerspelled by her teacher, Annie Sullivan, into her hand, nonetheless emerges as a champion of oralism. In “What I Am Doing” (1904), she reports that at lectures she speaks, although she knows only Sullivan will understand her; her teacher then repeats her words aloud for the audience. Notably, both Searing and Keller were friends with Alexander Graham Bell, the influential advocate of oralism at the end of the century. Other pieces offer more nuanced perspectives. In his account of the notorious...