A Man Without Words [Paperback]

For more than a quarter of a century, Ildefonso, a Mexican Indian, lived in total isolation, set apart from the rest of the world. He wasn't a political prisoner or a social recluse, he was simply born deaf and had never been taught even the most basic language. Susan Schaller, then a twenty-four-year-old graduate student, encountered him in a class for the deaf where she had been sent as an interpreter and where he sat isolated, since he knew no sign language. She found him obviously intelligent and sharply observant but unable to communicate, and she felt compelled to bring him to a comprehension of words. The book vividly conveys the challenge, the frustrations, and the exhilaration of opening the mind of a congenitally deaf person to the concept of language. This second edition includes a new chapter and afterword.

Susan Schalleris a teacher of American Sign Language affiliated with the World Federation of the Deaf and the founder of In the Name of Deaf Adults (NaDA).

Oliver Sacksis a physician, best-selling author and professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. He has written ten books, includingThe Man Who Mistook His Wife for a HatandMusicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.

Acknowledgements
Foreword by Oliver Sacks

Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18: Ildefonso's Chapter

Afterword
Bibliography

Praise for the previous edition:

A meditation on the wonders of language. . . . Susan Schaller's book is a tantalizing glimpse into unexplored territory. . . . Virtually nothing has been written about adults without language, but Ms. Schaller makes it cleal“.