The Little Locksmith
A Memoir
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This early 20th century memoir of a woman’s faith in the face of debilitating disease is a “remarkably un-self-pitying book remains poignant and truthful” (Publishers Weekly).
“You must not miss it . . . It is the kind of book that cannot come into being without great living and great suffering and a rare spirit behind it.” —The New York Times
In 1895, a specialist straps five-year-old Katharine Hathaway, then suffering from spinal tuberculosis, to a board with halters and pulleys in a failed attempt to prevent her from becoming a “hunchback” like the “little locksmith” who does odd jobs at her family’s home. Forced to endure her confinement for ten years, Katharine remains immobile until age fifteen, only to find that none of it has prevented her from developing a deformity of her own.
The Little Locksmith charts Katharine’s struggle to transcend physical limitations and embrace her life, her body, and herself. Her spirit and courage prevail as she expands her world far beyond the boundaries prescribed by her family and society: she attends Radcliffe College, forms deep friendships, begins to write, and in 1921, purchases a house of her own that she fashions into a space for guests, lovers, and artists. Revealing and inspirational, The Little Locksmith stands as a testimony to Katharine’s aspirations and desires—for independence, love, and the pursuit of her art.
“A powerful revelation of spiritual truth” —The Boston Globe
“Katharine Butler Hathaway . . . was the kind of heroine whose deeds are rarely chronicled . . . [She took] a life which fate had cast in the mold of a frightful tragedy and redesign[ed] it into a quiet, modest work of art.” —The New Yorker
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Upon its original publication in 1943, Hathaway's testament to a full life despite debilitating disease earned glowing reviews and became a bestseller--and then dropped utterly out of sight. Rediscovered by the Feminist Press, this remarkably un-self-pitying book remains poignant and truthful. As a child in Salem, Mass., Hathaway was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis and, in the most advanced treatment of the time, was strapped to a board from head to toe and kept immobile for 10 years. During this period of enforced introversion, she developed astonishing inner resources and imagination, and a meticulous appreciation for life's details that would inform her work. When she regained mobility at age 15, she found her disability a forbidden topic and realized that a "deformed" girl was automatically expected to become a spinster aunt, forever dependent on her family for love and companionship. Hathaway heartily rebelled, moving and buying herself a large clapboard house in Maine, where she proceeded with the business of living. Hathaway treats the actual events in her life as practically irrelevant: the story she emphasizes is her spiritual and creative struggle to claim "selfish" time to write, her intense loneliness, her startlingly frank observations about her sexuality and her rebellion against the belief that an imperfect person does not experience desire. Hathaway's simple descriptions of the writing process are beautiful and on the mark. We're left wishing for the planned second and third volumes, which Hathaway did not have time to write before her death in 1942.
