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Deaf Literature Sampler: Oral, HH, and Late-Deafened

For more books on this topic, check the Einstein Catalog and search by keywords "hard-of-hearing" or oral deaf or late-deafened http://albert.rit.edu/. For more articles on this topic, check out the Gallaudet Index to Deaf Periodicals which includes citations to Deaf Life and other popular deaf publications. http://liblists.wrlc.org/gadpi/home.htm. Another database you might want to try is the NTID Deaf Index. Go to the Deaf Studies databases and explore. http://wally.rit.edu/electronic/topic/deafstudies.html

If a book is not housed at Wallace Library or ETRR , try Connect NY http://www.connectny.info/screens/opacmenu.html to see if area college libraries have it. If not, send your request via Interlibrary Loan http://wally.rit.edu/myaccount/ill.html. Your book usually arrives within a few days.

Also, The Tactile Mind is a literary print publication for the signing community. http://www.thetactilemind.com/. We have this publication on the CMS and in bound periodical format (back issues). 2nd floor PER PS508.D43T335. Another journal you might find useful is Sign Language Studies available online via the Einstein Catalog in the Project Muse database. http://albert.rit.edu/search/tsign+language+studies/tsign+language+studies/1,2,9,B/frameset&FF=tsign+language+studies&7,,8/indexsort=-

See SHHH and Late-Deafened magazines, 2nd floor.

Late Deafened/Oral Deaf/Hard of Hearing: Autobiographies/Personal Narratives

*Ashley, J. Journey into Silence. London: Bodley Head. 4th floor, DA591.A7A33.
Autobiographical account of a member of the English Parliament who suffers late onset of total deafness and through perseverance and lipreading skills succeeds as an English politician. No references to signing or manual alphabet.

*Battad, Hester Parson. Hester, Hester. Los Angeles: Ribuca, 1975. 4th floor HV2534.B38A3.

Beck, Pamela and Orin Cornett. (Eds.). Letters from Cue Adults: 2000-2001. Cleveland, Ohio: National Cued Speech Association, 2002. 4th floor HV2500.L48 2002.
Updates personal stories from individuals, some of whom are featured as children in the Cued Speech Resource book.

*Buckley, Kathy. If You Could Hear What I See: Lessons About Life, Luck and the Choices We Make. New York : Dutton, 2001. 3rd floor, PN2287.B745 A3 2001.
Born with a hearing loss that went undetected until she was eight, Kathy Buckley grew up in a silent world, her family and teachers assuming she was mentally retarded. She was sexually abused, run over by a jeep, and stricken with cancer all before the age of thirty. Rather than be consumed by grief, Kathy sought the light of laughter.Kathy Buckley not only survived, she went on to become a top female comic, the award-winning author of a one-woman show, and a beloved motivational speaker in demand throughout the country.In If You Could Hear What I See, Buckley weaves a remarkable story about the people and events that shaped her life and encouraged her to dream. She reveals the priceless gift she received after a stunning life-after-death experience--the gift that gave her power over her future and is available to every one of us. Most of all, If You Could Hear What I See is about a woman who made a choice: to overcome all the obstacles life threw her way, and to meet those challenges with dignity, courage, and laughter. Book jacket

*Calkins, Earnest Elmo. “Louder Please!” The Autobiography of a Deaf Man. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly, 1924. 4th lfoor, HV2534.C3A3.
About a man who rises to success in the world of advertising and gains the freedom to explore the resources of culture denied to most of his deaf contemporaries.

*Coco, David. ALDA Best 10, 1987-1996: Essays and Poems from the First Ten Years of the Association of Late-Deafened Adults. Little Rock, AR: University of Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, 1998. 3rd floor PS508.D43A42 1998.

*Colley, David. Sound Waves. New York : St. Martin's, 1985. 4th floor, HV2534.H8C65 1985.

*Drolsbaugh, Mark. Anything But Silent. North Wales, Pa: Handwave, 2004. 4th floor and ETRR HV2545 .D76 2004.
compilation of the most thought-provoking articles by renowned deaf writer Mark Drolsbaugh, on subjects including deaf/hearing relationships, the rift between ASL and English, the hidden world of the hard of hearing, oppression in politics and education, and idiosyncrasies of the deaf and of the hearing.
 
*Drolsbaugh, Mark. Deaf Again. North Wales, Pa: Handwave, 1997. 4th floor (2 copies) and ETRR HV2534.D76 D76 1997.
Mark was born into the fascinating world of deaf culture. His deaf parents were actively involved in the deaf community. As a hearing child, he felt at home in the company of both deaf and hearing people. When he discovers his own hearing loss, things suddenly change.

Harvey, Michael A. Odyssey of Hearing Loss: Tales of Triumph. San Diego, CA: DawnSignPress, 1998. 4th floor and ETRR HV2545.H39 1998.
These 10 true stories document the assaults to self-esteem, isolation, and spiritual crises that are faced by individuals with hearing loss.

*Heppner, Cheryl. Seeds of Disquiet: One Deaf Woman’s Experience. Washington, DC. Gallaudet UP, 1992. 4th floor and ETRR HV2534.H43 A3 1992.
Heppner, rendered deaf by a bout of spinal meningitis, here describes her world of silence. Her family's love for music continued unabated despite her condition, but Heppner could sense only its vibrations. She attended high school and college, then fell in love and married. Her life was seemingly perfect until she suffered two strokes, making her hearing loss even more profound. Only then did she decide to learn sign language. Job discrimination and acquaintance with other handicapped people eventually led Heppner to activism. Readers will find it easy to put themselves in her place and come away with her new vision. Her accounts of her personal and working lives are equally informative.

*Israelsen, Orson Winso. Forty Years of Sound and Forty Years of Silence: An Autobiography. Salt Lake City: Utah Print, 1968. 4th floor and ETRR HV2534.I8A3.

*Jack, Michael. Life Among the Dead. Luton, Eds., England: Cortney, 1981. 4th floor, HV2717.J3A3.

*Kisor, Henry. What’s that Pig Outdoors? A Memoir of Deafness. New York, N.Y. : Hill and Wang, 1990. 4th floor (2 copies) and ETRR HV2534.K57 A3 1990.
Genial and moving, sharp and witty, Kisor's memoir defies pigeonholing of the deaf by hearing and deaf persons alike. The book editor of the Chicago Sun-Times , who lost all aural ability at the age of three after suffering meningitis, Kisor characterizes himself as ``a minority within a minority,'' an oralist without knowledge of sign language who relies on spoken language and lip-reading to live and work amid the hearing. Trained by his mother in the then-maverick reading-based Mirrielees system and educated in hearing classrooms, he indicts the paternalistic deaf educators of his youth who fostered an ``oral-or-nothing'' means of communication for the deaf, although he also finds alarming the ``new orthodoxy'' of today's separatist signing deaf culture. With unflinching candor and telling details, Kisor cites the ways in which being deaf among the hearing shaped his personal and professional experiences: his humiliating impotence when his wife, undergoing an induced delivery of a stillborn baby, confronts insensitive medical personnel; a bout with alcoholism; his flexible interviewing skills, which are tested, for example, when he must negotiate a dialogue with writer Edward Hoagland, a chronic stutterer.

*Kisor, Henry. Flight of the Gin Fizz: Midlife at 4,500 Feet. New York: Basic Books 1997. 3rd floor, TL540.K53 K58 1997.
The author, a book editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, decided to enliven his middle years by learning how to fly. But he wanted an additional challenge, and when he read about the cross-country flight of C.P. Rodgers aboard the Vin Fizz in 1911, he knew he'd found it. In this book, he recounts his experiences learning how to fly (it was difficult to find an instructor willing to teach a deaf person) and buying a Cessna 150 (which he named the Gin Fizz in honor of Rodgers). He intersperses his tale with accounts of Rodgers's historic flight, giving a feeling for how aviation has remained the same and how it has changed throughout the years. The memoir includes lots of details about buying, maintaining, and flying a private airplane and an appreciation for trying something new in midlife. Recommended for popular aviation collections.

*Merker, Hannah. Listening: Ways of Hearing in a Silent World. Dallas: Southern Methodist UP, 2000. 4th floor and ETRR BF323.L5 M37 2000.
Listening is Hannah Merker's moving and evocative account of her passage into the world of deafness after a mid-life skiing accident. It is also her examination of the many ways people who cannot literally hear can "listen" and communicate. As Henry Kisor says in his foreword to this new edition, Merker "learned how to pay attention to the world both without and within her. Hers has been not so much a struggle to grasp the remnants of her hearing as it has been an intellectual adventure into the nature of sound."

*Myers, David G. A Quiet World: Living with Hearing Loss. New Haven : Yale UP, 2000. ETRR, RF290 .M84 2000.
Myers, the son of a woman who went deaf late in life, and who has himself experienced gradual hearing loss, explores the problems faced by the hard-of-hearing at home and work, and elucidates the new technology and surgical procedures now available. The author draws on not only his own experience but also his expertise as a social psychologist in order to describe the effects of hearing loss on the sufferer and on those around him. He provides advice on how best to alert loved ones to a hearing problem, persuade them to seek assistance, and encourage them to adust to and use hearing aids. Myers remarks that those with hearing loss are a fast-growing group because of the aging population and because of the "cumulative effects of amplified music, power mowers, motorcycles, and blow dryers." An appendix offers a substantial list of international resources for the hard-of-hearing. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

*Parson, Frances Margaret. Sound of the Stars. New York: Vantage, 1971. 4th floor and ETRR HV2988.P3.

*Parsons, Frances Margaret. I Didn’t Hear the Dragon Roar. Washington, DC: Gallaudet UP, 1988. 4th floor and ETRR HV2534.P37A3 1988.
Discusses her journey through China.

Reisler, Jim. Voices of the Oral Deaf: Fourteen Role Models Speak Out. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002. 4th floor and ETRR, HV2545 .R45 2002.
Fourteen successful deaf adults who use speech as their primary means of communication share their stories of growing up deaf, discuss what has helped them and what has hindered them in life, and offer advice to parents of deaf children. The role models include a banker, architect, engineer, percussionist, and professors. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

*Schrader, Steven L. Silent Alarm: On the Edge with a Deaf EMT . Washington, D.C. : Gallaudet UP, 1995. 3rd floor and ETRR RA645.6.G4 S37 1995.
In a frank, quick-paced personal narrative filled with humor, drama, and grim reality, Schrader relates the day-to-day drama of dealing with human catastrophe as a firefighter and emergency medical technician on the streets of Atlanta. His deafness was almost an afterthought, although Schrader often had to fight discrimination in his job. With courage and without fanfare, he fulfilled his dream of being an EMT, building a 15-year career and one of the longest service records in the city at the time. The gritty and gutsy details of many of the calls for help that he describes will grip readers. Writes Schrader, "we expected the unexpected and when we were lucky, we helped those who really needed it."

*Stenross, Barbara. Missed Connections: Hard of Hearing in a Hearing World. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 1999. 3rd floor RF291.S74 1999.
Why doesn't she just open up her ears and listen?" Few physical problems are as poorly understood as hearing loss. In Missed Connections, a new kind of self-help book that combines sociological reporting with personal reflection, sociologist Barbara Stenross examines what hearing loss feels like to those who have it and which technologies and strategies can improve communication at home and in public. Based on seven years of research, Stenross's book tells of how—as she sought information and solutions to help her hard-of-hearing father—she came to join a community group called Village Self Help for Hard-of-Hearing People. Taking us along to group meetings and into the homes of members, Stenross shows us—through the personal accounts of these individuals—the exhaustion that comes from constantly straining to listen, the frustration of missing critical comments or the punchlines of jokes, and the pain that hard-of-hearing family members experience when loved ones accuse them of hearing "when they want to." Full of scenes, dialogues, and conversations, Missed Connections also discusses such practical issues as how people with impaired hearing can continue to use the phone, how assistive technologies can help in public and private, why hearing aids can't always do enough, and how bluffing and silence can hurt more than help. Understanding that when one family member is hard-of-hearing, the whole family can suffer from "missed connections," Stenross offers in this book a useful family resource with a broad range of practical guidance.

*Thomas, Sue. Silent Night. Wheaton, ILL: Tyndale House, 1990. 4th floor (2 copies) HV2534.T46A3 1990x.
The book "Silent Night" is an autobiography of a woman named Sue Thomas finding her way through the big world with her invisible but life changing culture. When she was only eighteen months old, she went deaf. Instead of learning sign language, she learns how to speak and read lips. She went to a regular school, learned how to ice skate, play the piano and even work in the F.B.I.

*Tucker, Bonnie Poitras. The Feel of Silence. Philadelphia : Temple UP, 1995. 4th floor (2 copies) and ETRR KF373.T83 A3 1995.
In this witty, warm, and sensitive memoir, a successful lawyer and professor recalls her life as a child, student, wife, mother, and grandmother. Tucker had to battle against all odds because she also happened to be profoundly deaf. In a poignant, compelling manner, she recounts how she accommodated to the hearing world, becoming a skilled lipreader without learning sign language and never meeting another deaf person until her mid-thirties. Again and again, Tucker emphasizes how important it was for her to be in the mainstream of society and to be involved with life, despite the many difficult choices her disability caused. The humor, anger, sadness, victory, and frustration she expresses combine to leave readers with a refreshing understanding of hearing loss.

*Whitestone, Heather. Listening with My Heart. New York : Doubleday, 1997. 4th floor and ETRR HQ1220.U5 W45 1997.
The Miss America for 1995 recounts her struggle growing up as a profoundly deaf child, learning to speak, dance the ballet, and win success despite doctors' warnings she would never develop beyond the third grade.

*Woodcock, Kathryn Lee. Deafened People: Adjustment and Support. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2000. 4th floor (2 copies) and ETRR HV2380.W66 2000.
Two deaf professionals describe the processes of adjustment and acceptance in those individuals who have become deaf as adults. Combining medical background, professional advice, information on resources, and personal examples, they explain how deafness occurs, its effect on personal and professional relationships, and how and where to find support. With an emphasis on self help, they recommend journaling and provide instructions for starting and running a self help group. Woodcock teaches occupational and public health at Ryerson Polytechnic U., and Aguayo is a social worker specializing in deafness. c. Book News Inc.

*Zazove, M.D., Philip. When My Phone Rings the Bed Shakes: Memoirs of a Deaf Doctor. Washington, DC: Gallaudet UP, 1993. 3rd floor (2 copies) and ETRR R154.Z39 A3 1993.
In this chatty, appealing memoir (whose title refers to the mechanical device that wakes the author up for phone calls or as an alarm clock), Dr. Zazove, who is deaf, recounts how he overcame the odds and realized a lifelong dream to become a family doctor by gaining entrance to medical school--and then completing his M.D. Zazove believes that his deafness has contributed to his humanity, leading him into family practice and helping him to focus on individual patients. This personal account of his struggles reveals his inspiration, dedication, and warmth.

Drama
*Baldwin, Stephen. Borderline. Dec. 1979. RES, Archives, 3rd floor PS3552.A549 A19 1978b and E-Reserve.
About the struggles of a hard of hearing individual trying to fit in.

*Baldwin, Stephen. Caught In Between: A Play of Our Own: Part IV. Nov. 1983. RES, Archives, 3rd floor PS3552.A549 A19 1978b and E-Reserve.

Fiction
*Blatchford, Claire H. Full Face: A Correspondence About Becoming Deaf in Mid-Life. Hillsboro, OR: Butte, 1997. 4th floor and ETRR HV2534.B63 1997.
Author's correspondence with a fictional character.

Collins, Wilkie. Hide and Seek. New York:Oxford UP, 1999. (1861). 3rd floor PR4494 .H5 1999 and ebook.
Deaf central character. The first half of the novel shows Victorian modes of educating the heroine who became deaf as a child performer in a circus.

Field, R.L. And Now Tomorrow. New York: Macmillan, 1942. 3rd floor, PS3511.I25A8.
Romantic novel in which the heroine becomes deaf at 21 after an epidemic of meningitis. Her deafness spoils her chances for marriage and happiness until a young doctor comes to her rescue with a miraculous cure.

Shaw. Irwin. "Whispers in Bedlam.” God Was Here But He Left Early. Arbor House, 1975.
Hugo Pleiss is a professional football player during the 1960's who is slowly losing his hearing. He goes to an ear specialist for an operation to help him hear again, but the operation is too successful. Hugo can also hear people's thoughts, and sounds only animals can hear. He returns to the same doctor and asks to become deaf again.

Video

Sue Thomas, Breaking the Sound Barrier. Worcester, PA : Vision Video, 2003. DVD. 60 minutes. Color, Voiced, Captioned. 4th floor BR1725.T55 S8 2003.
Sue Thomas worked for the FBI in her earlier years. This dvd discusses her interest in Christianity and her illness with MS.   

*Unheard Voices: A Dramatic Look into the Heart of Hearing Loss. Play by Dalene Flannigan. Perf. Gael Hannan. Harris Communications, 2003. 23 mins. Color/Voiced/Captioned. 4th floor, PS3556 .L372 2003

Websites:

AGB Deaf Association http://www.agbell.org/

Association of Late Deafened Adults http://www.alda.org/

Hard of Hearing Advocates http://www.hohadvocates.org/

National Cued Speech Association http://www.cuedspeech.org/

Self Help for Hard of Hearing http://www.shhh.org/

Guide created by Joan Naturale 31 March 2004.
Email: JXNWML@rit.edu
Links checked 17 August 2004..