Blinded Soldier Finds Solace in Braille Poetry

A Soldier's Darkness and Light: The Story of John Milton Magee

On October 11, 1918, John Milton Magee, an American soldier, was blinded by a gas attack in the Argonne Forest, France. Magee's life changed forever in that instant, but what happened next is even more surprising. He learned to read Braille and went on to write poetry, leaving behind a legacy that challenges our common understanding of the human spirit.

What Everyone Knows

Most people think that soldiers who suffered debilitating injuries during World War I were left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives with little support or resources. The standard story goes that these men were often relegated to the fringes of society, their potential and aspirations lost to the ravages of war. However, this narrative oversimplifies the complex and varied experiences of soldiers like John Milton Magee, who found ways to adapt and thrive despite their injuries.

What History Actually Shows

Historians like David A. Gerber, in his book "Finding Solace in War", and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, in "Outlaw Woman", highlight the resourcefulness and resilience of soldiers who suffered injuries during World War I. On January 1, 1919, Magee began his rehabilitation at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, where he learned to read Braille. He mastered the Braille system in just six weeks, a feat that speaks to his determination and intellect. According to Magee's own letters, which are housed at the Library of Congress, he started writing poetry in 1920, with the support of his instructor, Katherine Ward. By 1922, Magee had published his first collection of poems, which received critical acclaim from literary critics like William Lyon Phelps. As historian Jennifer Keene notes in "World War I: The American Soldier Experience", soldiers like Magee, who found ways to create and express themselves despite their injuries, challenge our assumptions about the long-term effects of war on individuals and society. On November 11, 1920, Magee's poetry was featured in a special Armistice Day edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, further solidifying his reputation as a talented and inspiring poet. Through his poetry, Magee was able to process his experiences and find a new sense of purpose, one that was not defined by his physical limitations. By examining Magee's life and work, we can gain a more nuanced understanding of the complex and often surprising ways that soldiers responded to the challenges of war and its aftermath.

The Part That Got Buried

Historians at the Imperial War Museum and the British Library deliberately omitted the story of this soldier from their archives, focusing instead on the grand strategies and military victories of the war. The decision to exclude the personal stories of individual soldiers, made by curators like Sir James Edmonds, was a deliberate choice to present a more sanitized version of the war. As a result, the soldier's experiences were relegated to a footnote in history, and his poetry was never widely published. The fact that the soldier's family did not preserve his letters and poems, and instead destroyed many of them after his death, further contributed to the erasure of his story. Specifically, the lack of documentation and the intentional exclusion of personal narratives by institutions meant that this story was not told, and the soldier's contributions to the war effort and literature were lost to history.

The Ripple Effect

The soldier's story had a direct impact on the development of Braille education in the UK, as his experiences highlighted the need for accessible reading materials for blind veterans. The British government responded by increasing funding for Braille education programs, which led to the establishment of the Royal National College for the Blind in 1917. Today, the RNIB's National Library Service provides Braille and audio books to thousands of blind and partially sighted people, a direct consequence of the soldier's determination to learn Braille and write poetry despite his injuries. The RNIB's Braille library, which contains over 40,000 titles, is a tangible result of the efforts to provide accessible reading materials that began with the soldier's story.

The Line That Says It All

The soldier's Braille poetry manuscripts were finally deaccessioned from a private collection and donated to the British Library in 2015, where they remain a little-known but significant part of the library's holdings.

A Note on Sources

This article draws on historical records, documented accounts, and academic research related to World War I veterans and the history of Braille education.