Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven

by Susan Richards Shreve

A rich and moving memoir of childhood illness and its aftermath by a member of the last generation of Americans to have experienced childhood polio.


Just after her eleventh birthday, at the height of the frightening childhood polio epidemic, Susan Richards Shreve was sent as a patient to the sanitarium at Warm Springs, Georgia. It was a place famously founded by FDR, "a perfect setting in time and place and strangeness for a hospital of crippled children."


There the young Shreve met Joey Buckley, a thirteen-year-old in a wheelchair who desperately wants to play football for Alabama. The shock of first love and of separation from her fiercely protective mother propels Shreve on a careening course from Warm Springs bad girl to overachieving saint and back again. This indelible portrait of the psychic fallout of childhood illness ends -- like Tobias Wolff's Old School -- with a shocking collision between adolescent drive and genteel institution.


During Shreve's stay at Warm Springs, the Salk vaccine was developed, an event that put an end to a harrowing time for American families. Shreve's memoir is both a fascinating historical record of that time and an intensely felt story of childhood.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, History, Book Club, Childrens

215 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 2006

About the author

Also know as Susan Shreve. Received the following awards: Jenny Moore Award, George Washington University, 1978; Notable Book citation, American Library Association (ALA), 1979, for Family Secrets: Five Very Important Stories; Best Book for Young Adults citation, ALA, 1980, for The Masquerade; Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, National Council for Social Studies and the Children's Book Council joint committee, 1980, for Family Secrets: Five Very Important Stories; Guggenheim award in fiction, 1980; National Endowment for the Arts fiction award, 1982; Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mystery Writers of America, 1988, for Lucy Forever and Miss Rosetree, Shrinks; Woodrow Wilson fellowships, West Virginia Wesleyan, 1994, and Bates College, 1997; Lila Wallace Readers Digest Foundation grant.

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first reason that I read this book is because the author, Susan Richards Shreve, is to be an attending author at the 2012 National Book Festival in D.C., which I plan to also attend. While the author has many fiction titles from which to choose, I wanted to read her non-fiction account of her struggles with polio and her time spent at FDR's famous Warm Springs. I have only known one person in a personal sense who was struck with polio, but it has always piqued my curiosity. I was a child born in 1954, when the polio vaccine was still new, and I remember the sugar cubes we received with coated with the vaccine. I have found that in most non-fictional accounts, which are usually memoirs, which I have read about polio that I learn a little something new and different with each book. Such was the case with Ms. Shreve's book. I enjoyed reading about FDR's history with Warm Springs and its subsequent use as a polio haven. Susan Richards was 11 years old when she arrived at Warm Springs and stayed for two years. In writing the book, Shreve helped to refresh her memory by referring to an account of her stay written in her youth entitled Wooden and Wicker. She states that it was a huge help in refreshing what her 11-year-old/12-year-old self thought and felt at that time, and I think her access to this account helped lend an authenticity to the book otherwise unattainable. Don't read this book expecting to obtain an all-encompassing history or view of polio in the 1940's and 1950's. As I have already stated, reading different memoirs and some fictional accounts each give you important insight upon which to build a knowledge and understanding of the dreaded disease of polio, which struck so much fear into the parents of young children in America. For more comprehensive reading, I would suggest Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky, a history from which Ms. Shreve drew information for her book and which I have read in bits and parts, too. So, read Warm Springs for a glimpse into the world of polio and add it to your collection of sources on the subject.

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely coming of age story from the silent generation.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven,” Susan Richards Shreve writes achingly about the loss of control that comes with bearing illness, and also of powerful acts of will and defiance in the face of that terrifying fact.

She gives the reader utterly telling, quick-stroke particulars of family, like the brief, lovely two paragraphs that describe her parents' meeting. And beyond family, she plucks names from history, less-known people, who deserve more renown for their works.

Susan has a wonderful way of letting the little details conveyed by dialogue communicate essential traits of the people in “Warm Springs...”

And she describes perfectly the need for anyone with a physical disability to create a world that can be lived entirely in their head. A personal note: my beloved nephew Michael was born with spina bifida. And I've watched from the time he was two, how his mind has become sharp, his curiosity endless, his intelligence formidable. And much of that came from his being still, being forced to focus his mind on where he was.

She communicates the true horrors of disease, with lines like “...limbs so painful that a patient cannot bear to be touched, even by sheets.” There's also the steadfast determination, and in her case, head-strong penchant for carving her own path (as she remarks to Father James at one point “I'm always in trouble”), and, whether realistic or not, the fervent desire to heal, to always, no matter what setbacks or emotional buffeting a person might endure, have hope.

Susan Richards Shreve gets the duality of illness just right; how it can simultaneously separate and connect, wound and provide great wells of self-knowledge, and also, the ability to empathize, understand and grow far beyond whatever physical limitations get placed in front you.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

True story of a pre-teen girl striken with polio, who was sent in 1950 to live in Warm Springs, Georgia. I found this to be interesting - the whole era of the fear of polio and the lives affected by it.

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The narrative was nonlinear, often switching chronology and topics between paragraphs. Much of the backstory did not feel relevant to the topic of Warm Springs as a place.

[Landon Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

SRS is an amazing writing who can tell stories that flow well and entertain!

This is the first book that I have been able to sit down and read since middle school. I am in college during the time of reading this book and I can say that this story reminded me of what it felt like to enjoy reading when I was a kid.

So thank you Susan and I highly recommend this Memoir!

[La · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir taught me about a time and place I knew nothing about. It was an education. I recommend to every and anyone who doesn't know a thing about polio and what parents and families faced. This was a family with means, so I think Warm Springs wasn't what most families experienced for treatment. It made me appreciate what the polio vaccine has done for my world.

[Beverly Hollandbeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of one child's two-year stay at the Warm Springs, GA, polio hospital in the early 1950s. Since that child went on to become a novelist, this memoir is well-written, and the subject matter makes it a quick read. I enjoyed her back-and-forth in time style.

[Sarah Ewald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay memoir of the author's time (2 years) spent as a child at FDR's Warm Springs Polio Spa. Interesting time travel to an era when polio was prevalent and treatments were primitive prior to the discovery of the polio vaccine.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good read. So sad on the fact that anyone had this disease, the struggles. I just couldn't imagine.

[Katherine Relf-canas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of 13 novels (perhaps more), Richards-Shreve tells a well-narrated version of the tragic lives of children struck by polio in a 1950s era that thought differently about illness and childhood than we do today. This would not leave her paralyzed like it did many children. I found this to be a fantastic testament to how 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' I plan to send this book to someone I know who had polio so that maybe he can enjoy it and compare his own West Coast experiences to the story of a D.C. area teenager and her time at FDR's Warm Springs Georgia sanitarium.

I grew up in La Jolla California where the name Salk Institute seemed to be uttered on a monthly basis. The building it was housed in was designed by an architect whose name was bandied about our house a lot, Russel Forester. This book made me think back on my own childhood antics and the small beach community where I was born. Times when one sees one's general nature reflected in the exasperated faces of adults. Although I didn't have physical handicaps that led me to engage in capers and antics I did relate to the way the author recounts the experience of pushing up against limits and the consequences of being left to ones own devices and how that leads some to invent all kinds of trouble.

The book is a unique story and it is told in an interesting way, leaving us to learn how the author came to an understanding of how her family history shaped her and how her illness took some of her childhood from her.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely wonderful memoir. It's hard to imagine leaving my children on their own for two years at a combination medical facility/camp, as Shreve was left by her parents, but polio forced some hard choices.

She writes with a very moving and honest style. Surprisingly there is a lot happening in these two years to the point where I was anxious to find out what happened. I'm sure part of writing the book was to explore actions for which she must feel guilty. Reading about or thinking about children doing things that have terrible consequences for other people is both fascinating and horrible all at the same time, because I can desperately wish they didn't make that decision or mistake and at the same time realize they were young and didn't have the experience to look ahead in the way an adult can. Is it just part of growing up but most of us are lucky enough to not do anything for which we need to feel responsible? I don't know, but Shreve writes about her own experiences in a way that is very compelling.

In some ways, this book reminds me of Prep, which is fiction, but also deals with a young girl living in a world of children and only a few adults. Both are excellent explorations of that cusp between childhood and adulthood. I recommend this book to everyone.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one with multiple health conditions, most of which I cope with daily, I picked up this book in a moment of fierce self-care. The theory was, of course, helping me to deal with my own burdens through sharing another's much more dire story. It was in a bargain bin, marked undeservedly in my opinion, so low as to fit my budget without the usual guilt of a lifelong book habit. It has lived in one of my waiting-to-be-read book stacks for a good six months and passed over many times as off-putting at best. Currently I am immersed in a frustratingly undiagnosed mystery illness which has robbed me of all my sick days and every last one of my annual allotted vacation days at work. As it often happens I felt propelled to towards a waiting book, obviously this one now. As hoped I have found it refreshing of spirit and bolstering of courage and endurance. How I admire this young girl. It is a book that would appeal to many being both autobiographical and a history of time, place, medicine, and public perception. To my surprise it also speaks to that person from my childhood, one many of us share, that yearned for acceptance and asked so very much of herself, her Herculean efforts all but invisible to most. It is a fortifying read.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting memoir! I knew very little about the polio epidemic before reading this. Reading about the procedures they performed on some of these kids is a bit like reading about medicine in the middle ages- I don't think they had a clue what they were doing. Also made me really glad I didn't grow up in the early 50's- don't think I would have liked it at all.

The author's relationship with her mother was also very strange to me- her mother behaved atrociously, but she seems to be unable, even as an adult, to hold her accountable for her neglectful treatment. As a parent, this just made me insane to read.

I was very frustrated by the end, but it's a memoir, so that's just what happened. I do wonder if she ever learned anything more about the kids with whom she was in the hospital.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warm Springs is a non-fiction book about the author Susan Richards having polio. It protrays the struggles she faced in her life as a young girl in a life threatening situaltion. Almost all of her life as a child she spent at the FDR research hospital. She undergoes several sergaries in which she has to relearn to walk everytime. In this book she even fines best friends and even boyfriends.

This book was not made into a movie, therefore I do not know what the diffrences were between the two.

This was a very inspiring book, and even in time educational. I would defrenetly recomend this book to others. It is very easy to read and when you get to know susan you have so much respect for her and all the others who have fallen victum to Polio. You fined a knowledge when reading this book of just how much these people go through, and most of them are just innocent little kids.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book with the idea of getting some background on Warm Springs before taking a road trip to the site (about an hour south of Atlanta.) Not knowing much about polio, I had not properly prepared myself for how depressing this book could be; while the author does not indulge in self-pity, one can't help but be moved by the stories of broken bones, muscle transplants, and the like. This book also gives some insight into FDR and his desire not to be seen as an invalid or someone defined by his illness. Would make for great group discussions...and of course a nice field trip for Ga-based folks!

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live about 1 1/2 hours from Warm Springs. There were not many children growing up in the sixties and seventies that didn't go on at least one field trip to Warm Springs. I found the place fascinating as a child. I thought Ms. Shreve's memoir was a matter of fact description of a life that was far from normal. She did a great job transplanting the reader into a different place and time. I also could not help but think what a short time ago this all took place. We seem to easily forget the pain and agony this disease brought to thousands of people in this country and abroad. A great read.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to learn about the hospital where people with polio were sent in the 40's and 50's. Of course FDR was its most famous patient, and the founder. The writer's memoirs of her experiences there gave me a sense of what it was like to stay there. I found her writing style could have been tightened up. Hard to explain, but it seemed like she didn't have a straightforward narrative, and I always felt like she was just making it up as she went along, that she could have had a better editor. Still, I liked the historical picture she presented, and am curious to read one of her other books.

[Shirlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was interested in the idea that polio was such an epidemic that doesn't even effect our lives today, but it was such a wide spread problem just 50 years ago. It hurt people in all social levels and was treated as such a poor persons disease. This is like a journal of a girl reflecting back on her days at this retreat place where some lucky individuals when to have surgery to help with the muscle loss from polio. Not totally captivating, but kept my interest enough to finish, okay read.

[Agnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend suggested I read this memoir written by a woman from Washington, DC who suffered from polio as a child and was sent to the rehabilitation center in Warm Springs funded by FDR. It's a well written story about the suffering endured by young polio victims and their families and introduces the reader to a feisty, good-hearted young girl who beat the disease and found a way to cope with two years of various surgeries and torturous therapy, living away from her family and friends.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason I didn't get the polio vaccine even though it had been out a few years and contracted polio at age 3. I have very few memories of the actual disease after 52 years, and was hospitalized for only approximately 3 weeks. I didn't know much about Warm Springs and this was a pretty good book of what it must have been like to an 11-year-old girl sent there from her family, but it also seemed like the convoluted writing of an 11-year-old, very disjointed. The end was frustrating.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book because not only was it nice to read a children's point of view while she was sick with polio, but I learned about history, religion, and even medicine. This was a great book of strength and courage of a young girl, who was diagnosed with polio. It may be depressing at times, but in the end it was full of inspiration and insight.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A child leaves her family to receive polio treatment at Warm Springs. The book contains the author's reflections on her experiences while she was treated for polio, which she compares with the experiences she included in the novel she wrote during her time at Warm Springs.

Shows how young teenagers go through similar emotions at growing up whether they're well or sick. Well written.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't like this book. I thought the description sounded really interesting about one the first medical homes that had been created by Roosevelt and the children that spent some of their childhood their being treated for polio. However, this was a memoir of sorts, and told in such a disjointed fashion and overall sorrowful tone that I had no enjoyment at all from this book.

[Amy Mccaffery · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually a really good book, I couldn't stop reading it it was so interesting, but something about it left me rather depressed. I'm not entirely sure why. I knew nothing about polio, so it was really interesting to learn about that era in history and how devestating the effects of polio were.

[Marilyn J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is terrific book. Perhaps any reader who vaguely recalls the polio scares will find it more interesting. But it's really more about a place, a community, a non-sentimental look at family, physical hurt and disfigurement and "doing what must be done."

I've been finished for a long time. I still think it's excellent, a good book to read for many reasons.

[Violet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was kinda disappointed in this book. The story was very disjointed. Did the author really remember the things she wrote about or was she making it up and changing things, like she said she did in her book after her stay at Warm Springs. Read page 210, the second paragraph, is just one example. I would have liked more information on some of the medical aspects in her treatment of polio.

[West · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a strong read 2/3 of the way through... then the author flips back and forth between present and memories, completely losing her story rhythm and momentum. Stopped reading, started skimming at that point. Not a satisfying read, overall.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one of those "been there seen that" kinda books for me. Living close to Warm Springs, GA and visiting there on several occasions; I could imagine everything in this book so vividly. A wonderful story about life and the struggle with polio.