The Little Locksmith

by Katharine Butler Hathaway, Alix Kates Shulman (Foreword)

The Little Locksmith, Katharine Butler Hathaway's luminous memoir of disability, faith, and transformation, is a critically acclaimed but largely forgotten literary classic brought back into print for the first time in thirty years.

The Little Locksmith begins in 1895 when a specialist straps five-year-old Katharine, then suffering from spinal tuberculosis, to a board with halters and pulleys in a failed attempt to prevent her being a "hunchback." Her mother says that she should be thankful that her parents are able to have her cared for by a famous surgeon; otherwise, she would grow up to be like the "little locksmith," who does jobs at their home; he has a "strange, awful peak in his back."

Forced to endure "a horizontal life of night and day," Katharine remains immobile until age fifteen, only to find that she, too, has a hunched back and is "no larger than a ten-year-old child." The Little Locksmith charts Katharine's struggle to transcend physical limitations and embrace her life, her body and herself in the face of debilitating bouts of frustration and shame. Her spirit and courage prevail, and she succeeds in expanding 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 in Castine, Maine. There she creates her home, room by room, fashioning it as a space for guests, lovers, and artists.

The Little Locksmith stands as a testimony to Katharine's aspirations and desires-for independence, for love, and for the pursuit of her art."We tend to forget nowadays that there is more than one variety of hero (and heroine). Katharine Butler Hathaway, who died last Christmas Eve, was the kind of heroine whose deeds are rarely chronicled. They were not spectacular and no medal would have been appropriate for her. All she did was to take a life which fate had cast in the mold of a frightful tragedy and redesign it into a quiet, modest work of art. The life was her own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Classics, History, Biography, Biography Memoir, Autobiography

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in 2000 after it had been re-published by the Femminist Press. And,I loved it. This Spring I was in a used book store looking for the THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. The bookseller pointed me toward the children's section and lo and behold, there was THE LITTLE LOCKSMITH. I quickly drew the classificiation mistake to the bookseller's attention and began to tell him the story. Then he said, "Do you want it?" So, I took the book and read it again. And, I still love the story of a young woman with a terrible disability and how she lived her life. Strangely, I had just read Margaret Atwood's book about being a writer NEGOTIATING WITH THE DEAD and I found Butler agonizing over the same troubles that Atwood described. Having people not understand the need to be alone and write; having writing seem to be a frivolity and not a real job and similar writerly concerns. This time I found Butler, who begins the tale of THE LITLE LOCKSMITH in 1895, a little dramatic, but her story also resonated with another book I had just read called THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FACE by Lucy Grealy. Both Butler and Grealy suffered mightily with pain and disfigurement. Both write beautifully and yes, dramatically, about their journey. But, Butler turns into a real person, while, Grealy did not. The books are worth reading one after another. My favorite parts of Butler's books are where she describes the house that she bought and the improvements that she made to it. This house comes to mean so much to her as a way to prove herself and to have a sanctuary for her work. Butler is a lavish writer. To me, this means that she lavishs her attention upon the things that she loves and details their meaningfulness to her. And, her writing style is exaggerated and lavish. But, if you can get through it, the book is worth it.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book - wasn't sure if I really did till p. 232 to the close. Here are some quotes from pages 232-235:

"The first thing I found is a sequence...first I looked and I began to see...then, inevitably I noticed that what I saw was amazing, beautiful. The beginning of the sequence, then, is, first you see, then you admire. Next admiration leads to gratitude, next, gratitude leads to humility, for the person who receives much feels grateful and then humble, because he wonders how he can have deserved such an extravagant kindness. Humility is naturally followed by a feeling of wonder and adoration toward the source of these miracles, the god who made them and put them there. When I thought of our incredible rudeness, taking all this for granted and then complaining and asking for more, I tried to think of some way to make amends and it dawned on me then to pray. It is the natural expression of those who begin and end each day in that most beautiful instinctive human attitude, the attitude of the sensitive, courteous guest of God, on their knees with the head bent down before an ever-present God toward whom their hearts open like drooping flowers or like radiant flowers. They know the whole sequence. They not only see, and admire, and take, and stop there. In recognition of what they have seen, admired, and received, they finish the sequence, they put themselves and their lives into God's hands to do as He will with them.

p. 235 "[Don't] forget to guard your happiness with humility and prayer."

[Madi Badger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is so meaningful, in that it is an autobiographical account of living with a disability that was published many years before disability studies really became part of popular discourse. Katherine’s writing style is very beautiful and poetic, making it enjoyable to consume. Other than that I found it really hard to get over how much she was in love with/wanted to f*ck her brother lmao yikes

[Eileen Prendergast-Apoe]

This book was not first published in 1980. It was first published by Coward-McCann Inc. out of New York, in 1942, shortly after the death of the author, Katherine Butler Hathaway. It was also published in Toronto, Canada, by Longmans, Green and Company.
The world lost something wonderful and fine when she passed away in her early middle years. This was a tremendously talented lady, with a very unusual take on life for any time period, but for the 1940's she was downright AMAZING! I am only about a third of the way through her book right now (05-05-2010) and I am struck by the realization that every page is a little vignette of its own. Exquisite microcosms. I will have to post another time when I have finished it. Eileen Prendergast-Apoe

[Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully poignant and unflinchingly honest. The kind of book I could read several times over.

There are revelations about the limitations we place on ourselves versus the limitations placed on us by others as well as the well-intentioned protection/exclusion of people with chronic health issues that I'm still absorbing. Because the awakenings of the author are told with the sincerity of someone who still has their eyes wide open to them they invite introspection in the reader. The writing is comforting while the subject is stimulating and thought-provoking.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish we could give half stars as this would get 3.5 stars from me. I wanted to like it and I did really like the premise. There was some really beautiful language and imagery. However I found a lot of repetition and a few tangents that were distracting. Worth a read but not quite what I was expecting.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

This same feeling of my own intrinsic separateness was always with me, too, when certain grown-up callers insisted on coming burbling upstairs "to see poor little Katharine." I could always hear them coming and I knew just what to expect. I didn't need to be very subtle to realize from their puffing exclamations of pity and their heavily tactful asides that these visitors imagined that I was unfortunate. under their breath I heard the gruesome word "afflicted." Such people bored me beyond words. They didn't seem like real living people. I knew they were not interested in me at all as Katharine, only as "poor little Katharine." They never paid any attention to what I was drawing or making, they were blind to all the interesting treasures around me. They were not real people, surely, but just large meaningless objects that had got into my room by mistake and were very much in the way there. Ignoring everything under their noses which would have interested them if they had been alive, they could only seem to see the one thing in the room which was not interesting and not important except that it was doing me good, my halter and rope. And they would stand staring and asking questions and boring me with their stupid pity until my mother or my nurse finally led them away. The only impression, luckily, that was left on me by these visitors was disgust for their ignorance and a fresher satisfaction in my own affairs.

This book was suppressed so that the disability porn cuntfuckery that is "Flowers for Algernon", "Of Mice and Men", "Me Before You", and so many flatulent, no nothing, obscenely renowned others could be written. Heaven forbid any of the disabled and/or neuroatypical folks find love and life and even consensual sex on their own doesn't-die-at-the-end terms. heaven forbid that not only a disabled person, but a disabled woman, not in the 21st century or even in the late 20th but someone born in the tail end of the 19th be capable of traversing the ocean in the pursuit of art, fame, romance, and best of all succeeding in all of these goals, both consciously striven for and otherwise. I won't profess that the author is perfect, but her voice is a powerful counter to the ableist filth that clogs the assumptions of both media and law that in turn contribute high and low to the denial, dehumanization, and death of both me and those in my community. I don't care how much able authors writhe and moan. If they had ever actually had a healthy dialectic with a disabled person, they never would have written what they ultimately made bank off of.

I was a fanatic in my belief that life is not ordinary, and in my hatred for all the acts, manners, talk, and jokes which treat the mystery of life as if it were comic and obscene, to be handled with contempt and laughed at or kicked around like an old rag.

It is extraordinarily valuable to have a record of a child rejecting the pitying glances of self serving adults and obnoxious children, for the bullying in the schoolyard is always handed down via the sins of the parents, and the only way to humanize disabled/mentally ill children is to rid the world of disability porn and other related ilk which those parents consume. Hathaway had the benefit of extraordinarily supportive finances and a generally supportive family, but that only points out how much of the devastation of disability is artificially created via capitalism and socially sanctioned abuse. The moment one believes people exist for the society, not the other way around, is the moment one sells one's soul to the deep. Hathaway's emotional turmoils are harrowing, but her life is one of triumph largely in thanks to emotional as well as financial confidence, and I am likely to add her cumulative letters and other writings just to read of the multiple transatlantic crossings and interactions, as well as to see whether her disappointingly racist views with regards to Japanese people, especially Japanese women, have any underlying context. That was one of the major flaws in an otherwise singularly wonderful piece of memoir, and reading on would ease my mind somewhat, if for nothing more than the acquiring of context for a sensationalist narrative. Sometime in the future, then. This book was difficult enough to acquire in my usually passive fashion, and a more discombobulated work will certainly prove even more elusive.

From the liberals who armchair diagnose Trump to the alt-right aspiring to the heights of their ideological Nazi ancestors, ableism has many heads and many self-perpetuations. Unless you yourself go out of your way to listen to disabled/mentally ill folk, you're participating in their annihilation, as no individual exists in a vacuum, and a world that continues to herald "Me Before You" is a field of war for any person who refuses to fit the mold of human sacrifice for the sake of able others. There is so little writing out there that the mainstream pays attention to, so there may come a time when 1939 rolls around again. All I can hope for is that there are more August von Galen's and Theophil Wurm's (albeit of a non-antisemitic sort) in positions of power, and that the rest of the (white) world doesn't once again bury its head in the sand, or leastwise doesn't go nearly as deep.

For as the Apostle with good reason admonishes us: "Those that seem the more feeble members of the Body are more necessary; and those that we think the less honorable members of the Body, we surround with more abundant honour." Conscious of the obligations of Our high office We deem it necessary to reiterate this grave statement today, when to Our profound grief We see at times the deformed, the insane, and those suffering from hereditary disease deprived of their lives, as though they were a useless burden to Society; and this procedure is hailed by some as a manifestation of human progress, and as something that is entirely in accordance with the common good. Yet who that is possessed of sound judgment does not recognize that this not only violates the natural and the divine law written in the heart of every man, but that it outrages the noblest instincts of humanity? The blood of these unfortunate victims who are all the dearer to our Redeemer because they are deserving of greater pity, "cries to God from the earth."

-Paragraph 94, Mystici corporis Christi

[Alyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Katherine Butler Hathaway paints a very engaging and moving biography of her life up to when she began her adventure at her new house. At the beginning, I was under the impression the story would be about the "island" that her house was, but this was not the case. It is how she came to be the person she was and how the house was the start of something new and wonderful. It was great, but definitely different from what she sort of introduces the book as being. I found myself constantly getting a little frustrated because she seems to keep getting distracted from the point of the book. Which of course is not exactly a bad thing, the story she does tell is magnificent. I just kept wanting to "get to it".

But there is no doubt the story of her life is fantastic (if a bit one-sided in her analyses) and the writing is magnificent. The failings of the book are generally just the failings of people; she goes on and on in beautiful prose about her complicated relationships with her family and friends, and at times she shows great insight but other times are woefully hypocritical. She will speak of how little her mother understood her, and how her mother never knew her private agonies and emotional depths, but because the two never had meaningful conversations the author could very easily have been mistaken; her mother may have understood fully and just expressed herself as badly as the daughter. As we all do, Katharine makes assumptions and assumes they are fact, but this can be problematic when analyzing other people. Perhaps she was correct in her perceptions, but she and the readers have no way of knowing that at this point, and it just comes across as hubris on the part of the author to speak with such authority about the consciousness and unspoken thoughts of another person.

Overall, great book, compelling narrative, and brilliant writing. The flaws are few and far between, but present, which I almost feel is better than a perfect autobiography. I wish she had lived long enough to write the sequel, so I could find out all about her life in her "island" house.

[Stephanie Behl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this memoir. The writing struck me as both beautiful and thoughtful. I even have a couple of favourite quotes:
i) "But most human beings never remember at all that in almost every bad situation there is the possibility of a transformation by which the undesirable may be changed into the desirable."
ii) "Reality is unbelievably terrifying after one has done nothing but dream."
I rated this four stars because while I enjoyed reading it, I personally found it to be a slow read due to the sheer amount of run on sentences. I found myself having to reread parts because by time the sentence ended, I had forgotten how it had begun.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I want to buy multiple copies of to give to my dearest friends. It is a book about devotion as an artist and also as a human being who finds meaning and a way of making sense of life.
It is the memoir of Katharine who had tuberculosis of the spine that kept her from age 5 to 15 strapped to a board with her neck in a harness. What emerged was a woman with amazing imagination and a capacity to appreciate all of life.

[Mollie Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enchanting memoir by a physically disabled woman who finds life and love creating the house of her dreams in Castine, Maine. This book is a love letter to the life of the mind, creativity, and discovering the person whom God created her to be. Highly recommend if you like Thomas Hardy, historic houses, and Maine.

[Rmschow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written, but it seemed to be leading up to something interesting throughout the novel and then totally fell flat. Hathaway has a unique poetic writing voice, however the pacing and the conclusion left something to be desired.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite books! Its charm is hard to describe.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant, profound and deeply perceptive, Katherine Hathaway delivers a refreshingly original perspective to her memoir. It's a shame it's so under appreciated.

[Lauren McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was literally "Deenie" but --adultified--, actually true, and fascinating. Such strength of character is shown throughout this memoir and it was really refreshing to have such total unashamed honesty

[Margaret Hoover · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written memoir!

[Carol Tometsko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had some great words in there (probably a bit old fashioned) that I had to look up. That's always fun.

[Glennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the authors of Younger Next Year,Chris Crowley, wrote 3 paragraphs about this book and the author, and I was intrigued. Katharine Hathaway was one of his aunts. He mentioned her in a chapter called "Swimming Against the Tide" and it seemed that Aunt Kitty did just that. After being stricken with spinal tuberculosis and given the "treatment" of being strapped to a board for 10 years, she rose from her bed, no taller than a 10-year-old child, and with the hunched back that her parents hoped the treatment would save her from. This is the story of her transformation from the disabled "pathetic" spinster to a woman who called her own shots and made a life for her self.
Looking forward to diving into this one. More review when I've read it!

Finished the book. It is not an easy read. It is written in a quaint "old-fashioned" style, with lots of description, and often quite flowerly. It's amusing to see the words "queer" and "gay" used with their original meanings! That being said, it was an insightful book, interesting look into the author's mind, and the mindset of the early 1900's. I enjoyed her views on writing and the creative process.
Favorite quote: When the author was debating about buying a house,, a HUGE deal for a single woman at that period of time, she writes: "I discovered that my decision was only a question of whether I preferred to be governed by fear or by a creative feeling, and although I was very frightened, I knew I could not choose fear." She used that argument for future decisions, she would look at all sides and see which belong to fear and which belonged to creativeness, and all things being equal, she would make the decision based on where the larger number of creative reasons stood. Something to remember.
Sad that she did not live long enough to see the book published,, or to write her planned sequels. It would have been interesting to read more of her life.

[Kate Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hathaway, with searing intimacy, tells of her struggle to find meaning as a person with a spinal deformity whose appearance either made people turn away or aroused their pity. Treatment for the condition during her childhood in the 1890s was primitive. She felt she would never find a worthwhile purpose or be loved by anyone outside her immediate family. Her highly disciplined commitment to writing provided the purpose; she later did find love and ultimately marriage. Her determination to recover from depression and make sense of her life despite her disability was inspiring. She brought a remarkable and consistent intensity to her creative work, as well as to the most mundane aspects of life.

Published in 1942 and now obscure, this was included by well-known author Elizabeth Gilbert on a list of her favorite books about creative inspiration. Gilbert writes, "I wish every woman in the world would read it." So I did.

[Hobart Frolley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It is filled with passion, emotion and strength. It is also a rare case of someone writing effectively and well about their body and what it is like to live in a body that is other than the accepted "norm". I do highly recommend this book and if it wasn't for the epilogue I would have given this book 4 stars.
The epilogue is quite preachy and sanctimonious ( a tone that is not present in the memoir proper) and talks about the "new dark ages" and the "suicidally clever people" who do not believe in god, which as an atheist were a complete turn-off for me. Perhaps being one of the people she seems to be speaking about made me more defensive towards this memoir than is justified, but if you are a fellow atheist I would recommend skipping the epilogue .

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Katherine Butler Hathaway shares the story of her illness and recovery with strength and honesty. It is to her credit that she loves life even after her experiences.

The book felt monotonous at times. As beautiful as the sun and wind are, few people can write about them past a few sentences without loosing the interest of the reader.

Hathaway is upset because her illness prevented her from experiencing some aspects of life, "I," she says "who have so many appetities." Perhaps it is because I just read a biography of Mother Teresa, and another of Joni Erickson Tada, but I was underwhelmed by this one.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly arduous read, the memoir of Katherine Butler Hathaway and the house which transformed her is as unbelievable, yet just as magical as a fairy tale. A theme of 'transformation' runs rampant through the entire memoir - and not a transformation into something new, but a transformation into what you really and truly are. This is a beautiful concept - to go from frog to prince - but I still felt as though Katherine was hiding something from us. Her memoir very seldomly goes to a dark place and she seems overly chipper at certain moments - as if she's trying very hard to convince the reader she's been happy all along.

Visit The Rory Gilmore Book Club for further discussion.

[Jim George · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of a disabled girl, who grows up to be a woman. Along the way through the kindness of her family, and through her ability to write she finds a way to liberate herself from her afflictions. It is through the power of her mind and spirit that she is able to free herself. The best things are made out of nothing, use all your wits to circumvent fate. Go ahead and risk everything. The experience of being born, of living, and of dying is all a poem, and every part of it should be received with wonder and gratitude. Fall on your knees and worship the mystery.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. Vivid descriptions and brilliant observations are related in perfect prose by this sharp young woman. She was a hunchback, an essential outsider, but blessed with intelligence, money, and a loving family. Lucky her, because without these things the life of artistry, beauty, and passion she carves out for herself might well have been re-cast to a hovel somewhere. Nope, not much doubt about that.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, the premise sounded so interesting. I tend to love the inspiring "against all odds" kind of stories -- if they are well written. Not the case here. This has to be the worst book I've read in the past decade. The writing is painfully dry and not the least bit compelling. Don't think there was one single person in my book club that enjoyed this book - and that's rare for our group. We have pretty diverse tastes.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting memoir that I recently discovered. It was a 1943 best seller and a main selection of the
Book-of-the Month Club. Ms. Hathaway was born in 1890. Due to a tubercular spine she spent her
childhood strapped tight to a stretcher, on a hard bed. Her head was placed in a leather halter
from which a five pound weight hung. It was considered the best treatment in 1895.

She writes "Although my back was imprisoned, my hands and arms and mind were free."

[Sheri Fresonke Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely memoir about the author's early years when ill with tuberculosis that affected her spine with the cure being to strap her to a board. Despite the unusual nature of her upbringing and the effects of the disease, the author stays positive. Her ability to see the "magic" of life around her, her struggle through college to reach a point of indepth writing, and her eventual challenge toward her weaknesses leading to love, home and beyond are very well told.

[Mary Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating little memoir about a girl with TB if the Spine. Her disability gave her an interesting perspective on life. She struggled and overcame her disability at a time when being a woman could be disability enough in establishing one's independence. She died before completing her story so the book ended abruptly, but otherwise a fine read.

[Rhonda Wall]

Story of a child spinal tyberculosis survivor. She lived to adulthood with a hunchback and only grew to the size of a 10 year old child. Her imagination, vision and drive transforms her life from a life of tragedy. I am hoping the fact that it is published by The Feminist Press doesn't mean I will be offended by it. So far so good.

[Mom Coulongue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Val,
This is a very different book than those we have been reading.
The author lived in Castine for awhile and bought a house there.
I would like to see it if it still exists- hope to research it after the Christmas.
I will save it for you -
It is very old- Mrs. Gladys Henderson from church gave us some books which belonged to her husband, so I'd likeit back to read again sometime.