Morrison Heady

James Morrison Heady (July 19, 1829 – December 19, 1915) was an American deafblind author. Heady published multiple volumes of children's books and poetry and was frequently referred to by the contemporary press as the "Blind Bard of Kentucky". He was one of the first advocates for books for the blind in the United States and he invented several devices to facilitate communication and improve quality of life for deaf and blind people.

Early life and education

James Morrison Heady was born July 19, 1829, in Elk Creek, Kentucky. He was blinded in one eye in early childhood by a chip from a woodcutter's axe, and at age sixteen he lost sight in the other eye while playing with a schoolmate. His hearing was damaged after a fall from a horse as a child, worsening until he was completely deaf by the age of forty.

After losing his sight at sixteen, Heady attended the Kentucky School for the Blind for a year, then attended the Ohio State School for the Blind for another fourteen months. He learned to read embossed print and invented a "talking glove", a cotton glove with the letters of the alphabet printed at multiple places on the hand, using this tactile spelling to communicate with friends. He was largely self-educated through reading books and compiled one of the largest private collections of raised-type books in the United States.

Writing and advocacy for the deaf and blind

Heady developed a number of friendships with other deafblind people, including Helen Keller and Laura Bridgman. He also cultivated relationships with poet John Greenleaf Whittier, physician Simon Flexner, and legal scholar Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, each of whom read to Heady. He read Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind and other periodicals in embossed print to keep informed about current affairs. In his 20s Heady traveled throughout the United States advocating for more books to be made available to the blind. In 1854 he began collecting monetary donations for the publication of Milton's Paradise Lost in embossed type. Heady inspired Dempsey Sherrod, a blind man from Mississippi, to raise funds for a national printing house for books for blind people, which was established as the American Printing House for the Blind. In 1860 Heady was appointed by the printing house's board to solicit donations for publishing raised-type books.