Article
Profile of Adele M. George
Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers
(2013)
Abstract
In this Profile of George, who was born deaf to hearing parents and struggled to obtain an education and livelihood, Rush Seitz and Laura Laffrado build upon the work of Christopher Krentz, who recently excerpted George’s long-forgotten autobiography, A Brief Narrative of the Life of Miss Adele M. George, (Being Deaf and Dumb), to share new findings that document the history of George’s life. Tracing multiple editions of her Narrative across decades of the US nineteenth century, Seitz and Laffrado reveal George to be a resourceful, courageous public woman who prospered late in life in an unsympathetic world that multiply marginalized her. The recovery of her life and further information about her texts expands and nuances our frames of understanding regarding nineteenth-century US women, writing, and disability, particularly as George’s life defies ableist assumptions concerning the economic, social, and physical conditions necessary to enable female professional authorship.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2013
Publisher Statement
Special Issue: Women Writing Disability
Legacy is published twice a year by the University of Nebraska Press and is available online through Project MUSE or through university electronic journal websites.
Legacy is the official journal of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers.
Citation Information
Laura Laffrado and Rush Seitz. "Profile of Adele M. George" Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers Vol. 30 Iss. 1 (2013) p. 172 - 183 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/laura-laffrado/6/