The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, The Original Deaf-Blind Girl [Paperback]

Elisabeth Gitter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312420293 | ISBN-13: 978-0312420291 | Publication Date: August 1, 2002

In 1837, Samuel Gridley Howe, the ambitious director of Boston's Perkins Institution for the Blind, heard about Laura Bridgman, a bright deaf-blind seven-year-old, the daughter of New Hampshire farmers. He resolved to dazzle the world by rescuing her from the "darkness and silence of the tomb." And indeed, thanks to Howe and an extraordinary group of female teachers, Laura learned to finger-spell, to read raised letters, and to write legibly and even eloquently.

Philosophers, poets, educators, theologians, and early psychologists hailed Laura as a moral inspiration and a living laboratory for the most controversial ideas of the day. She quickly became a major tourist attraction, and many influential writers and reformers—Carlyle, Dickens, and Hawthorne among them—visited her or wrote about her. But as the Civil War loomed and her girlish appeal faded, the public began to lose interest. By the time Laura died in 1889, she had been wholly eclipsed by Helen Keller.

The Imprisoned Guest recovers Laura Bridgman's forgotten life, placing it in the context of nineteenth-century American social, intellectual, and cultural history. Her troubling, tumultuous relationship with Howe, who rode her achievements to his own fame but could not cope with the intense, demanding adult she became, sheds light on the contradictory attitudes of a reform era in which we can find some precursors to our own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Samuel Howe, director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was caught up in the enlightenment fervor that swept Boston in the 1830s and '40sa period characterized by humanitarian and scientific zeal. Back in town after aiding in the 1820s Greek revolution, the restless, socially responsible Howe needed a daring and brilliant project to establish himself among respected intellectual circles. With the education of a blind and deaf child, who had no recollection of language but a quick wit and ability to learn, he donned the role of a philanthropic Pygmalion. Victorian studies scholar Gitter, an English professor at the City University of New York's John Jay College, skillfully evokes the social, intellectual and cultural context in which Howe and Bridgman transformed public perception of people with multiple disabilities. Thousands flocked from all over the world to observe this intelligent, communicative and well-adjusted girlamong them Dickens and Darwin, both of whom wrote about her. Although Bridgman's fame was later eclipsed by Helen Keller's, Gitter argues with unsentimental feminist conviction that Bridgman's story forms an important piece of the history of Americans with disabilities, while also illuminating other cultural prejudices. The charming girl of seven was the perfect "victim-heroine," though she fell out of favor with Howe and the public when she grew into a plain-looking, intellectually demanding, determined and complicated young womanperhaps, Gitter opines, more threatening to contemporary mores. This highly absorbing and entertaining study will intrigue readers interested in 19th-century America and in biographies that bring female public figures out of history's woodwork. 12 photos and illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Left blind and deaf at the age of two, Laura Bridgman became a 19th-century celebrity as the prot g of Samuel Gridley Howe, who successfully taught her to use language. Both of these scholarly studies are based on primary sources and describe Bridgman's education firmly in the context of the social reform, educational, and religious movements of the time. Gitter (English, CUNY) offers more biographical information on Bridgman and Howe; Freeberg (humanities, Colby-Sawyer) emphasizes educational and philosophical theory. Scrutinized and manipulated much of her early life as the subject of educational theory, Bridgman nevertheless maintained a sense of self-assertiveness. Late in her life she met Helen Keller, then a child, who would entirely eclipse her fame. These two studies reveal as much about the motives of her teachers and the intellectual climate of the time as they do about Bridgman herself. Either title would be appropriate for academic collections in education or women's studies, but the writing is accessible and engaging enough for public libraries. Patricia A. Beaber, Coll. of New Jersey Lib., Ewing
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Picador (August 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312420293
• ISBN-13: 978-0312420291
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,860,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive and Well Written, May 29, 2001

By 

Joanne & the Dogs "Joanne" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl (Hardcover)

Elisabeth Gitter has introduced the 21st Century reader to Laura Bridgman, "the original deaf-blind girl" in her well written and sensitive portrayal of "this pitiful little girl" who "became the most celebrated child in (19th Century) America." Along with her teacher and mentor, Samuel Howe, founder of the first school for the blind in America, Laura became an inspiration for the indominability of the human spirit. Yet, as Gitter wisely and perceptively shows, the multi-faceted character behind Laura's public persona was often overlooked by Howe in his zeal to show the world that, in his words, "obstacles are things to be overcome", and that Laura Bridgman was the prime example of the veracity of his statement. With her extraordinary knowledge of the Victorian era in which the story takes place, and her exceptional command of the written word, Gitter has brought Laura Bridgman the honor and dignity she was often denied her life.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT biography of Samuel Gridley Howe and Laura, February 23, 2006

By 

Joan C. Frank (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, The Original Deaf-Blind Girl (Paperback)

I have read quite a lot about Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan over the years, and I have read a bit about Laura Bridgman. I have read enough to know that "rescue from darkness" comes at a cost and is often not done for the greatest good of the "victim". In Helen and Annie's case, Helen's world was infinitely enriched by Annie's total dedication to her pupil. In return, Annie created a family and garnered recognition for herself. Unfortunately, in Laura's situation, the trade-off was not as well balanced.

Samuel Gridley Howe was a man on a mission to achieve recognition and status among the liberal Boston elite in the early 1800s. His goal was to find and educate an intelligent blind and deaf child and thereby establish himself as a distinguished philanthropist and expert in education and the social sciences. He believed that Laura was a means to that end.

While educating a blind deaf girl may have sounded like an unselfish project in 1837, the horror of Laura's reality is clear today. Laura was often isolated from other children and adults to help make Howe's experiments in education "pure." When Howe felt that he had no more to gain from her, he left her with very limited companionship. So, unlike Helen, her education and socialization, and hence her maturation, stopped when Howe lost interest. As a result, she suffered great loneliness and depression.

Gitter provides a great deal of information about Howe that seems to indicate that he had a narcissistic personality. Her revelations about Laura show that she had great potential for learning and growing that was left untapped as a result of her unnecessary and cruel seclusion from the world.

This book is very well written and clearly reveals the historical and social context of the lives of Laura and Howe. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the subject area.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid Story, Fascinating History, August 22, 2002

By 

Charles Hirshberg (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl (Hardcover)

The long-forgotten story of Laura Bridgman is riveting: She was the first deaf, blind and mute American to learn English and she did so through the ingenious efforts of Samuel Howe. If author Elisabeth Gitter had done nothing more than reintroduce this story to the world, her book would have been worthwhile. But Gitter does much more. Both Bridgman and Howe were enormously complicated, infinitely fascinating characters and their relationship was unprecedented in human experience (quite a statement, but it's true!). It is incredible, and in many ways, heart-wrenching, to watch their storybook relationship develop and devolve. Gitter wisely tells the story without literary flourishes; it's so remarkable, it doesn't need any. The author is also scrupulously fair to her subjects (few characters in history go from appealling to detestable, and back again, more quickly than Howe) and provides just the right degree of historical background--enough to inform the reader, but not enough to slow down the narrative. A nearly perfect book!