Orphan Factory

Orphan Factory
Author: Charles Simic
Publisher:
Total Pages: 136
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Orphan Factory collects writing by Charles Simic, hailed as one of our finest contemporary poets. A native of Yugoslavia who emigrated to America in his teens, Simic believes that tragedy, comedy, and paradox are the commonplace experiences of an exile's life. In this delightful collection of journal entries, autobiographical essays, criticism, and prose poetry, the poet reveals once again his fondness for odd juxtapositions that reveal hidden and unexpected connections. In the title essay, Simic -- whom critic Helen Vendler has called the best political poet on the American scene -- reflects on his family's experiences of their war-torn homeland during World War II and the frightening familiarity of the recent tragic events in the region. The collection has many hilarious moments, such as Simic's memoir of his first days in New York City as a young poet and painter, impressions from his poet's notebook, and first lines from his unwritten books. The book also contains reflections on dreams, insomnia, and the night sky, and considers the work of poets Jane Kenyon and Ingeborg Bachmann, and of visual artists Saul Steinberg and Holly Wright.

Orphan Train Rider

Orphan Train Rider
Author: Andrea Warren
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 84
Release: 1996
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780395913628

Discusses the placement of over 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children in homes throughout the Midwest from 1854 to 1929 by recounting the story of one boy and his brothers.

Report

Report
Author: Commonwealth Shipping Committee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1434
Release: 1909
Genre: Shipping
ISBN:

Memoirs

Memoirs
Author: Harry S. Truman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1110
Release: 1916
Genre: Presidents
ISBN:

The Charleston Orphan House

The Charleston Orphan House
Author: John E. Murray
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2013-02-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0226924106

The first public orphanage in America, the Charleston Orphan House saw to the welfare and education of thousands of children from poor white families in the urban South. From wealthy benefactors to the families who sought its assistance to the artisans and merchants who relied on its charges as apprentices, the Orphan House was a critical component of the city’s social fabric. By bringing together white citizens from all levels of society, it also played a powerful political role in maintaining the prevailing social order. John E. Murray tells the story of the Charleston Orphan House for the first time through the words of those who lived there or had family members who did. Through their letters and petitions, the book follows the families from the events and decisions that led them to the Charleston Orphan House through the children’s time spent there to, in a few cases, their later adult lives. What these accounts reveal are families struggling to maintain ties after catastrophic loss and to preserve bonds with children who no longer lived under their roofs. An intimate glimpse into the lives of the white poor in early American history, The Charleston Orphan House is moreover an illuminating look at social welfare provision in the antebellum South.

The Orphan Scandal

The Orphan Scandal
Author: Beth Baron
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2014-07-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0804792224

On a sweltering June morning in 1933 a fifteen-year-old Muslim orphan girl refused to rise in a show of respect for her elders at her Christian missionary school in Port Said. Her intransigence led to a beating—and to the end of most foreign missions in Egypt—and contributed to the rise of Islamist organizations. Turkiyya Hasan left the Swedish Salaam Mission with scratches on her legs and a suitcase of evidence of missionary misdeeds. Her story hit a nerve among Egyptians, and news of the beating quickly spread through the country. Suspicion of missionary schools, hospitals, and homes increased, and a vehement anti-missionary movement swept the country. That missionaries had won few converts was immaterial to Egyptian observers: stories such as Turkiyya's showed that the threat to Muslims and Islam was real. This is a great story of unintended consequences: Christian missionaries came to Egypt to convert and provide social services for children. Their actions ultimately inspired the development of the Muslim Brotherhood and similar Islamist groups. In The Orphan Scandal, Beth Baron provides a new lens through which to view the rise of Islamic groups in Egypt. This fresh perspective offers a starting point to uncover hidden links between Islamic activists and a broad cadre of Protestant evangelicals. Exploring the historical aims of the Christian missions and the early efforts of the Muslim Brotherhood, Baron shows how the Muslim Brotherhood and like-minded Islamist associations developed alongside and in reaction to the influx of missionaries. Patterning their organization and social welfare projects on the early success of the Christian missions, the Brotherhood launched their own efforts to "save" children and provide for the orphaned, abandoned, and poor. In battling for Egypt's children, Islamic activists created a network of social welfare institutions and a template for social action across the country—the effects of which, we now know, would only gain power and influence across the country in the decades to come.

The Orphan

The Orphan
Author: Thomas Gorton
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2014-10-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1326060074

Born in Liverpool in 1934 and almost immediately placed in an orphanage, Thomas Gorton's life has not been without its challenges. Now in retirement and living on the east coast of Yorkshire, he gives us a frank account of this life.