The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story - Softcover

Perlman, Rosalind

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1883423139 ISBN 13: 9781883423131

Publisher: Blue Point Books, 2007

Synopsis

The Blind Doctor is the remarkable and compelling account of the first totally blind physician fully licensed to practice medicine. Jacob Bolotin was born blind to poor Jewish parents in Chicago in 1888. Rejecting the conventional wisdom of his time, he was determined to “be of use” in the world. He learned Braille and developed an uncanny sense of touch and hearing that would later make him one of the top heart and lung specialists in the city. To pay for his education, Jacob sold brushes, then typewriters, door-to-door. He fought his way into and through the Chicago College of Medicine, graduated with honors at twenty-four, and became the world's first blind physician fully licensed to practice medicine.

The voice of Dr. Jacob Bolotin was one of the first to raise the awareness of the world to the plight of the blind. His speeches about his own life and the need for treating people with disabilities as capable and productive citizens were in such demand he often gave four talks a day while working full time as a doctor and teaching at three medical colleges. He also started one of the first blind Boy Scout troops in the United States.

Dr. Jacob Bolotin died in 1924; he was only thirty-six years old. Five thousand people attended his funeral.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Jacob Bolotin was born blind to poor Jewish parents in Chicago in 1888. Rejecting the conventional wisdom of his time, he was determined to “be of use” in the world. He learned Braille and developed an uncanny sense of touch and hearing that would later make him one of the top heart and lung specialists in the city. To pay for his education, Jacob sold brushes, then typewriters, door-to-door. He fought his way into and through the Chicago College of Medicine, graduated with honors at twenty-four, and became the world's first totally blind physician fully licensed to practice medicine.The voice of Dr. Jacob Bolotin was one of the first to raise the awareness of the world to the plight of the blind. His speeches about his own life and the need for treating people with disabilities as capable and productive citizens were in such demand he often gave four talks a day while working full time as a doctor and teaching at three medical colleges. He also started one of the first blind Boy Scout troops in the United States.Dr. Jacob Bolotin died in 1924; he was only thirty-six years old. Five thousand people attended his funeral.

About the Author:

As a child growing up in Chicago, Rosalind Perlman had heard of “the blind doctor” even before she met her husband, Alfred Perlman, in the 1930s. Although she was only 13 when he died in 1924, Dr. Jacob Bolitin was well-known and greatly admired by people throughout the world, and especially in his native city.

Dr. Bolotin’s wife, Helen, was Alfred’s aunt, and he was fortunate enough to have lived with them for the last four years of Jacob’s life. Rosalind and Alfred married in 1938, and she got to know Aunt Helen and learned more about her husband’s remarkable uncle. After Alfred returned from serving overseas in World War II, they moved to Santa Maria, California where Alfred taught high school.

The dream of Rosalind and Alfred was to write the story of Dr. Bolotin’s life so that others could learn about this amazing man, who had devoted the last third of his short life to changing society’s perception of what a blind person could do. Rosalind had written many drafts by the time Alfred died in 2001. She devoted that last years of her life to making sure the book was completed. The Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story is the result.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blue Point Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1883423139
• ISBN 13: 9781883423131
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 252