THE IMPRISONED GUEST: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl

Samuel Howe, director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was caught up in the enlightenment fervor that swept Boston in the 1830s and '40s—a 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 girl—among 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 woman—perhaps, 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. (May 17)