Overcoming handicaps

Résumé

"Overcoming handicaps" by Archer Wallace is a collection of inspirational biographical sketches written in the early 20th century. It gathers true stories of men who rose above poverty, illness, disability, and other setbacks to make notable contributions in science, art, letters, and public life, aiming to encourage young readers facing difficulties. The opening of the book sets a motivational tone through Rev. Frank Langford’s introduction, urging boys not to be daunted by slow school progress or hard circumstances and noting that these real-life stories first appeared in a Canadian boys’ paper. It then launches into brisk sketches: Charles Steinmetz, the hunchbacked immigrant who became a leading electrical authority at General Electric; Arthur Kavanagh, born without limbs, who rode, hunted, traveled the East, managed his Irish estates humanely, and served in Parliament; John Flaxman, a frail child who, through perseverance and study (and work with Wedgwood and years in Italy), became England’s leading sculptor; Robert Louis Stevenson, lifelong invalid yet joyous storyteller and “Tusitala” in Samoa; Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed towering works despite deafness; Michael Pupin, the penniless Serbian immigrant who educated himself to become a prominent Columbia University scientist; Jean Lemoidant, renowned Breton painter blinded and maimed in war, who returned home to teach art with remarkable cheer; Michael Faraday, the poor bookbinder’s apprentice who rose to world renown in electricity; Thomas A. Edison, the deaf former newsboy whose grit and tireless experimentation fueled prolific invention; and John Davey, an unlettered farmhand who educated himself and became a pioneering “tree doctor.” A contents list hints at further chapters of similar spirit, but the provided portion closes as the next profile, of sculptor Ivan Meštrović, begins. (This is an automatically generated summary.)