Born into an upper-middle-class family in 1803, Thérèse-Adèle Husson was a
French writer
Chronological list of French language authors (regardless of nationality), by date of birth. For an alphabetical list of writers of French nationality (broken down by genre), see French writers category.
Middle Ages
* Turold (eleventh centur ...
in the post-
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.
...
period. At the age of nine months, she became
blind as a result of
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
. She wrote more than a dozen
children's novels
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
. She also wrote an autobiography, dictated to two different writers, which was sent to the director of the
Quinze-Vingts Hospital in 1825. This autobiography was later discovered by
Zina Weygand Zina Weygand (born April 23 1945) is a French historian and emeritus researcher at the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. She obtained her PhD from University Paris 1 in 1998.
Weygand is a specialist of disability history, especially t ...
in the hospital's archives, and with the assistance of
Catherine Kudlick, Weygand translated the work and published it as ''Reflections: The Life and Writings of a Young Blind Woman in Post-Revolutionary France''. The book is known for being the first French-language book by a blind person about blindness. Husson died in 1831 following severe burns received when her apartment caught on fire.
External links
NWSA Journal Vol.14, No.3 (Autumn 2002)British Library Direct: Reading a Life Between the Lines: Therese-Adele Husson's Reflections on Blindness, by G, KleegeThe Holman Society Presents: Selected Reflections on the Physical and Moral Condition of the Blind (1825)
See also
*Louis Braille
Louis Braille (; ; 4 January 1809 – 6 January 1852) was a French educator and the inventor of a reading and writing system, named braille after him, intended for use by visually impaired people. His system is used worldwide and remains virtua ...
, Braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...
French blind people
French writers with disabilities
1803 births
1831 deaths
19th-century French women writers
Literature about blindness
Blind writers
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