Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius [Hardcover]

C. Michael Mellor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2006

"We the blind are as indebted to Louis Braille as mankind is to Gutenberg." - Helen Keller

Three great men were born in the early weeks of January 1809: Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin, and Louis Braille. Only one has remained virtually unknown — the man who invented a means of reading and writing still used today in almost every country in the world, adapted to almost every known language from Albanian to Zulu.

Born sighted, Louis Braille accidentally blinded himself at the age of 3. He was lucky enough to be sent to a school for blind children in Paris, one of the first in the world. There, at the age of sixteen, he worked tirelessly on a revolutionary system of finger reading that became braille. He was a talented musician, astute businessman, and genius inventor — collaborating with another Frenchman to invent the first dot-matrix printer around 1840.

Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius is the first ever, full-color biography to include thirty-one of his extant letters, some written by his own hand, and translated into English for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thoroughly researched and charming, this coffee-table book is overstuffed with pictures, letters and every type of Louis Braille memorabilia available. Unabashedly admiring, the author acknowledges his goal is not to write a "pathography" of Braille, and indeed, readers will find none of Braille's hidden vices (nor any hints of their presence) to enliven this life story. But Braille's life in the middle of the 19th century provides a rich story: a man who, blinded during boyhood, devoted himself to teaching other blind people better ways of negotiating their world. In addition to devising the raised-dot alphabet, Braille also set up a system for musical notation and built printing machines for his alphabets. The writing here is straightforward and suits the reverential tone of the text, which incorporates photo-reproductions of Braille's correspondences (both dictated and those he printed using his printing techniques) and provides a brief history of the contentious debate over standardizing the Braille system. If the tone seems boosterish, the book accomplishes its aims-to highlight the goodliness and inventiveness of a man who transformed the lives of blind people worldwide.
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Review

... [Here is] an inspiring blend of talents, meticulous research, and the obvious affection and devotion of everyone associated with the project. Reading it is a never-to-be-forgotten experience. --CTEVH Journal

I cannot recall another instance in which the publication of a book simultaneously in print and braille has caused such a stir.... This book is a must read for everyone who loves braille. --Braille Monitor

At last, Louis Braille's world comes to life with a richness that is entirely new.... Braille may not have been the saint portrayed in children's literature, but he was authentically a good man and, indeed, a genius. At a distance of nearly two centuries, modern readers can hardly help being moved by knowing what Braille cannot - that he really will improve the world for millions of people. Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius does a wonderful job of showing readers exactly what it cost him. Parents of blind children (especially those who may have been warned by "experts" against making their children "too independent") cannot afford to miss it. --Future Reflections

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: National Braille Press (March 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939173700
• ISBN-13: 978-0939173709
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #873,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful book to read and to peruse, March 10, 2006

By 

Randi Lee (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius (Hardcover)

I found this book beautiful to flip through and enjoy on a quick, surface level and then even more powerful to read. I loved the photographs that transported me to the French countryside that Louis Braille grew up in; I relished in the descriptions of what life was like during the era that he lived in. The story of his life is inspiring and reminds me that it sometimes only takes one person to change the lives of many others. There is so much each of us can accomplish in this life. This book reinvigorates me to live life to the fullest!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Touch of Genius, April 8, 2006

By 

Ken Stuckey (Stockholm Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius (Hardcover)

In all our years in the field of education of the blind we have never seen or reviewed such a well researched and informative book on the life and times of Louis Braille. It is both a beautifully illustrated coffee table book, worthy of pride of place in libraries, schools, homes and places of public information. It brings to light the little known facts of the genius of the blind Frenchman as never before. Yet it is more that just that, as it shows in graphic form by the using of illustrations, drawing, pictures and postage stamps the journey of the blind from "darkness into light". The world of the blind as seen by the sighted, prior to and after Louis Braille in the 19th century gave the blind the only system by which they could and can become fully literate. Braille as Mellor clearly shows in detail, is far more than a system by which the blind and deafblind can read, it is also a universal system for writing in all languages.

This book should be read by all professionals working in the field of disabilities, as well as by those from high school students up and the general public. It is a book for all both sighted and blind. It should be noted that this book was published at the same time both in print and Braille.

Ken Stuckey Retired Research Librarian Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown USA
Gunilla Stenberg Stuckey Retired Director Tomteboda Resource Centre, Stockholm Sweden

5.0 out of 5 stars A short and awesome story of Louis Braille, July 1, 2010

By 

Jorge Fernandes - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius (Hardcover)

This wasn't my first book of Louis Braille's story, but was one of the bests that I read. Margaret Davidson writes very, very well. The facts are very precised. If you are looking for a good book with the story of the inventor of braille system, this is one of the bests. It's incredible how a 12 year old boy follow is goal: create a code that permit to blind people like him read books. If Pierri Henri writes in English, certainly that he will liked to write this one.

For me here is the best sentence of the book:

"(...) in the entire school library there were just fourteen books. Just fourteen! (...) Without books we can never really learn!" Louis Braille with 10 years old when arrived at the Royal Institute of Blind Youth. This was the ambition of the younger Louis: Books!!