[Blindtlk] sense of the world

[Kathleen Millhoff]

hi,
thanks; intriguing; one day i expect a dissertation on related lit.
best,
kat


On 5/3/09, Lloyd Rasmussen <lras at sprynet.com> wrote:
> Greetings from another person who strayed from Iowa.
>
> In Dr. Jernigan's 1973 speech, entitled "Blindness: is History Against Us",
> he was quoting from a book called "Biography of the Blind" by James Wilson.
> Wilson was a blind person who collected stories of many famous blind people
> and published this book in 1820.  Biography of the Blind is available in the
> NLS collection, I think.  Dr. Jernigan's speech is also worth reading.  One
> place I found it is:
>   http://www.blind.net/pba1973.htm
>
> Have a good weekend.
>
> Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
> Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
> Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Kathleen Millhoff
>> Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 9:34 AM
>> To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [Blindtlk] sense of the world
>>
>> Hi,
>> This is me, Kat, and I used to write to this list from another
>> address; since resubscribing a few months ago with my newer address,
>> I've read much but written little. However, something occurred that I
>> wanted to share.
>> I've just read, via NLS recording, "A Sense of the World", about a
>> 19th century blind man named James Holman (guessing at spelling) whose
>> preoccupation was traveling alone all over the world. He wrote
>> numerous books about his travels, and wa famous in his day.  His
>> fortunes diminished as he grew older, but later explorers were
>> inspired by his descriptions of things, including his involvement and
>> actions. He went on elephant hunts and any number of amazing things.
>> The book doesn't clarify how he managed many things. I know readers
>> wouldn't have wanted an O&M manual, but each time we read that he did
>> something, I found myself wondering how - I, who take long periods of
>> time just to navigate the grocery store, and one I'm familiar with, at
>> that, would have managed things like finding the ship to get on,
>> cashing in tickets, locating lodging and much more.
>> At the end of the book, the author returns to a consideration of how
>> little in the way of schooling and work there was for the early 19th
>> century blind person.  Then he goes on to say that Dr. Jernigan talked
>> about "the blind traveler" as he was known at the NFB convention in
>> 1970, suggesting that  this was one of the blind heroes of history (my
>> words and phrasing). I believe Dr. Jernigan acknowledged the
>> difficulties Holman would have faced before braille and the long cane.
>> I lost track then of what the book was saying because I found myself
>> wondering how in the world Dr. Jernigan knew about this person, long
>> before the biography "A Sense of the World" was written.
>> Truly, wonders will never cease.
>> best,
>> kat
>> --
>> kathy millhoff - "Let each morn be better than its eve, and each
>> morrow richer than its yesterday."
>>
>
>
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-- 
kathy millhoff - "Let each morn be better than its eve, and each
morrow richer than its yesterday."