Annie Sullivan married but still remained the teacher and companion of Helen Keller until her death at the age of seventy in 1936.
Helen Keller quickly emerged, in her own words, as “the best damn poster child the world has ever known.” She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a university degree, at Radcliffe College, and became a prolific writer, lecturer, and activist. She learned to speak, though barely intelligibly, and was fitted with artificial blue eyes, which her family strove to keep secret. Helen died in 1968 at the age of eighty-seven.
Dr. Howe’s legacy, Perkins Institution, now called Perkins School for the Blind, finally came to embrace Braille, and moved to a larger campus in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1912. It is the world’s preeminent school for the education of both the blind and the deaf-blind, with partner programs in sixty-five countries.
In her 1929 autobiography, Midstream: My Later Life, Helen Keller wrote that had Laura Bridgman been blessed with a lifelong teacher and companion like Annie Sullivan, “she would have outshone me.”
Afterword
I first read about Laura Bridgman in a 2001 review of her biographies, The Education of Laura Bridgman by Ernest Freeberg and The Imprisoned Guest by Elisabeth Gitter, both of which have proved invaluable resources. I was astounded that I’d never heard of this remarkable woman, given the extent of her fame in the mid-nineteenth century. Why had she been virtually erased from history, leaving us to believe that Helen Keller was the first deaf-blind person to learn English? While the idea of a deaf-blind woman who also couldn’t taste or smell probably conjures for many the narrow cell of a cruelly limited existence, my first thought was that Laura Bridgman must have possessed a most fascinating and complex inner life. I also felt, in some strange and unfathomable way, that on some level, I already knew her.
Over the course of two years of research, both at Perkins and through fellowships at the Houghton Library at Harvard, the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society, I really did begin to know and to understand her in historical context and in relation to the other principals in her story. The more I learned, the more questions I had about this woman who became the nineteenth century’s greatest educational, philosophical, and theological experiment.
In writing What Is Visible, I tried to maintain my balance on what the writer Thomas Mallon has called the “sliding scale of historical fiction,” adhering to the “what might have happened as well ” model as opposed to the “what might have happened instead.” Besides Oliver Caswell, there were two other deaf-blind persons at Perkins during Laura’s stay: Lucy Reed and Julia Brace. I chose not to include them in the novel because neither one made any real educational progress; Lucy wore a bag over her head and never learned the alphabet, while Julia was largely inexpressive and unresponsive, learning only the most rudimentary sign in her single year at Perkins. On this note, there is only one major swerve from Laura’s documented life and that is my invention of the character of Kate, the orphaned Irish girl who becomes her lover. There is no record of Laura ever having had a romantic relationship—save her mistaken belief that her teacher’s beau was courting her—but that doesn’t mean, of course, that it didn’t happen. As a novelist friend advised, “If you’re going to write her whole life, you’ve got to give her something.” And so I gave her Kate. I chose a lesbian relationship rather than a heterosexual one because the journals and letters of Dr. Howe and her teachers repeatedly emphasize how much Laura didn’t like men and how much she did like women, especially touching them. Dr. Howe’s edict that Laura not be allowed into the other girls’ beds is true, and quite telling at a time when adolescents, and even adults, of the same sex routinely slept together.
As for my choice to make the sexual relationship a somewhat sadomasochistic one, it seemed natural to me that if one has only the sense of touch, the desire would be to push it to its extreme. It is also noted in Laura’s teachers’ journals that she often “hurt herself on purpose,” though not exactly how, and so the ritual self-cutting seemed to fit also. Laura claimed late in life that she had partially regained the ability to taste, but there were no tests run, and while it is medically possible to regain that sense, it is highly unlikely.
As Kate is my creation, then obviously she did not bear Dr. Howe’s child. His romantic life proved a rich area for speculation, however, because of the numerous extant letters mentioning his infidelities, even though his daughters methodically destroyed much of their parents’ correspondence, especially to each other. Howe also accused his wife, Julia Ward Howe, of having an affair with Horace Binney Wallace, who indeed committed suicide after she left Rome. It is also true that while Doctor left Laura two thousand dollars, he left his wife nothing. The exact reasons are unknown, but his dismay at her possible adultery and her continued work as a writer seem to have been enough, in his mind, to merit this final act of hostility. As for Doctor’s relationship with Charles Sumner, two recent academic works, Diva Julia by Valarie H. Ziegler and Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe by Gary Williams, explore the possibility of an affair between them. Both scholars come to the conclusion that while Sumner seemed to push for a physical relationship, it was probably never consummated due to Howe’s reluctance.
Dr. Howe’s involvement with John Brown and the Secret Six is entirely factual, including Brown’s visit to Boston and Howe’s flight to Canada. While it is not known whether Laura Bridgman actually met Brown when he was at Perkins, she did encounter all of the other real-life historical figures in the novel, most significantly Charles Dickens, who devoted an entire chapter of American Notes to her. There is no proof that she was introduced to Emily Dickinson’s poetry, but it is entirely feasible since Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Miss Dickinson’s mentor, was a frequent visitor at Perkins. The versions of the poems used in the text are taken from The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, which restored them to the original versions that Higginson would have had before he edited them years later for publication. The letters in chapters 5 and 7 are fictionalized, but they are based on factual events that occurred during that time period among all the characters. The poems attributed in the text to Julia Ward Howe were indeed all written by her.
While Julia Ward Howe and Sarah Wight became friends, there was enduring friction between Laura and Julia. The ear-thrusting incident is fabricated, though Laura was known to have slapped her teachers, fellow students, and even once bitten Charles Sumner. Though the use of gloves to punish her is my invention, it was suggested by the repeated handcuffing of Lucy Reed by Dr. Howe during her short time at Perkins. Laura was also highly discouraged from making her noises, including being asked by Howe to do so only in the kitchen closet. Laura’s use as a pawn to advance the causes of both phrenology and anti-Calvinism is well documented, as is Laura’s decision to be baptized and Howe’s rage and disappointment with her decision. The scene at the fund-raiser is fictional, though Howe did keep a vast collection of phrenological specimens on the premises.
Dr. Howe sent Laura home to New Hampshire in 1850, where she almost starved to death, and his quotes denigrating both her and her family are taken directly from his Annual Report. After he allowed her to return to Perkins, the Boston Evening Transcript proposed sending Laura to the London Exhibition as America’s greatest accomplishment, but Doctor declined, as he did Dorothea Dix’s offer to fund a lifelong companion for her. Whether or not he refused Laura artificial eyes is not known, though it’s clear that if he’d wanted her to have them, she would have had them.
As for Sarah Wight, I was blessed to discover her husband Edward Bond’s shipboard journal in the Houghton Library, where I was told I was the only one who’d ever read it. Bond wrote of how “the one sin of his youth” had ruined his life, his chances with Sarah, and possibly even threatened his sanity. He was not allowed to be a missionary, but sent to the Sandwich Islands in a purely administrative capacity. Though Sarah ha
d previously refused his offer of marriage, she joined him when she was let go from Perkins. I was fascinated by the question of whether he told her about the syphilis; however, his anguished journal revealed him to be possessed of such goodness and moral clarity that I felt sure he had given her a choice. We know that she chose to stay with him and bear his children and that she died in McLean Asylum, though whether from syphilis or an inherited mental condition is unclear.
After her rescue from the almshouse, Annie Sullivan lived in a cottage at Perkins with Laura for several years and Laura helped teach her the manual alphabet, which augments current American Sign Language, and which Annie then taught to Helen Keller.
The search for a “second Laura Bridgman” was conducted in earnest by Michael Anagnos, Howe’s successor, in what one historian termed “essentially a deaf-blind beauty pageant,” and Helen Keller was chosen because she was judged to be the prettiest, and therefore the potentially best “poster child.” Luckily for Perkins—and for the world—Helen also turned out to be a genius. And yet it is clear, as William James wrote in an essay for the Atlantic, “that without Laura Bridgman there could never have been a Helen Keller.” There is no record of what transpired at the meeting between Laura and Helen, save the fact that Helen stepped on Laura’s foot.
“The novelist,” said E. L. Doctorow, “has to break through the facts to get at the truth.”
It is my greatest hope that I have broken through in my search for the real Laura Bridgman, the realest Laura Bridgman.
About the Author
Kimberly Elkins’s fiction and nonfiction have been published in the Atlantic, Best New American Voices, The Iowa Review, the Village Voice, the Chicago Tribune, Maisonneuve, Glamour, and Slice, among others. She was a finalist for the 2004 National Magazine Award in fiction, and this is her first novel. Kimberly lives in New York City. Visit her website at www.kimberlyelkins.com.
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Preface
Prologue: Laura, 1888
Chapter 1: Laura, 1842
Chapter Two: Laura, 1843
Chapter 3: Chev, 1843
Chapter 4: Julia, 1844
Chapter 5: Letters, 1844
Chapter 6: Laura, 1845
Chapter 7: Letters, 1845
Chapter 8: Laura, 1845
Chapter 9: Laura, 1846
Chapter 10: Sarah, 1847
Chapter 11: Julia, 1847
Chapter 12: Sarah, 1847
Chapter 13: Laura, 1849
Chapter 14: Chev, 1849
Chapter 15: Laura, 1850
Chapter 16: Laura, 1850
Chapter 17: Sarah, 1851
Chapter 18: Chev, 1851
Chapter 19: Laura, 1851
Chapter 20: Julia, 1851
Chapter 21: Chev, 1852
Chapter 22: Laura, 1852
Chapter 23: Chev, 1852
Chapter 24: Laura, 1852
Chapter 25: Chev, 1856–1860
Chapter 26: Julia, 1860–1863
Chapter 27: Laura, 1863
Chapter 28: Laura, 1863
Chapter 29: Chev, 1864
Chapter 30: Laura, 1864
Chapter 31: Laura, 1865
Chapter 32: Sarah, 1870
Chapter 33: Laura, 1875–1876
Chapter 34: Chev, 1876
Chapter 35: Julia, 1876–1877
Chapter 36: Laura, 1883–1887
Chapter 37: Laura, 1888
Epilogue
Afterword
About the Author
Newsletter
Copyright
This book is a work of historical fiction. In order to give a sense of the times, some names of real people or places have been included in the book. Some of the events depicted in this book are imaginary, and the names of nonhistorical persons or events are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of such nonhistorical persons or events to actual ones is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Kimberly Elkins
Cover design by TK
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
“What Is Visible” first appeared in The Atlantic, March 2003, in a different version, and then in Best New American Voices 2004, and the 2005 McGraw-Hill college textbook Arguing Through Literature.
The prologue first appeared in a different version as “Laura Bridgman, Age Fifty-Nine, the First Deaf-Blind Person to Learn Language, Meets Helen Keller, Age Seven” in The Drum.
Chapter 17 first appeared in a different version as “The Letter” in “Printer’s Row,” the literary supplement to the Chicago Tribune, October 7, 2012.
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