Louis Braille invented the system of reading that opened the world of books to the blind. This is the first and only biography of the blind genius whose work has had such important and lasting value.

In 1812, three-year-old Louis Braille was blinded. If it had not been for the devotion of his parents and the kindness of friends in his little French village, his fate would have been the common one of outcast and professional beggar.

Arrangements were made for him to study at the only special school for the blind in all of France, and Valentine Hauy, who supported this Paris school, influenced Louis in the two great purposes of his life—his accomplishment as an organist and his determination to help the blind share the wealth of literature that was closed to them.

From the day Louis asked his father to cut an alphabet from odds and ends of leather in his workshop until he perfected a system of punched dots on stiff paper that enabled him to "feel" word for word what he had written in code, he was constantly experimenting. But he could not combat official resistance to such a revolutionary innovation and his unique method remained unrecognized during his lifetime. However, he did teach a few of his favorite pupils in secret, and it was one of these, Therese Von Kleinert, who finally secured recognition for him two years after his death.

Now, a century later, the tragic story of Louis Braille is told, and long deserved recognition is given the man whose method of printing, writing and musical notation for the blind is known in every country and is used in every language.

From the dust jacket