Words in Pain: Letters on Life and Death - Hardcover

Jacoby, Olga

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1911072358 ISBN 13: 9781911072355

Publisher: Skyscraper Publications, 2019

Synopsis

"These wonderful letters prove that true immortality lies in what we leave behind. For those of us who cannot accept the consolation of religion, they provide a sane and comforting view of how to live and, more importantly, die. They bear reading and re-reading and teach us how to live even when in the shadow of death. A feminist, rational and heartening voice about the big stuff-life and death." Sandi Toksvig "This remarkable book charts the difficult journey of an intelligent and enlightened young woman, as she approaches her inevitable death with optimism, generosity and wit. It is stimulating, moving, profound, and extremely enjoyable." Mike Leigh "Words in Pain is an epistolary treasure trove. By turns funny, touching, and intensely sad, Olga's letters muse on timeless questions about the nature of life, love and death-questions which resonate powerfully today." Cathy Newman First published posthumously in 1919, Words in Pain represents the collected letters of Olga Jacoby-writer, thinker and rationalist. Writing to her Christian doctor as she endures the emotional highs and lows of terminal illness, she challenges his beliefs and celebrates the power of science, nature and love: "Science is turning on the light, but at every step forward dogmatic religion attempts to turn it out." Her children appear in vivid colour: "I was greatly amused by my boy explaining to me ... that even should I die they would not lose me, as they would take my skeleton to keep in a corner of their nursery." As heart-breaking as they are erudite, Jacoby's letters reveal a progressive attitude to child-rearing and adoption, as well as a pionate commitment to moral logic and social justice. They show her to be as strong of mind as she was increasingly weak in body, and a woman both of and ahead of her time.

About this title

Review

Jewish Chronicle, April 3rd 2019;`Know that death is not bad..." wrote Olga Jacoby "and it is in our power to look at it calmly and even joyfully.";The year is 1910 and this young mother faces death from heart disease. Jacoby was born into a Jewish family from Hamburg but settled in West Hampstead with her husband Jack, who was also her first cousin. Words in Pain is a new edition of the collected letters she wrote in the last four years of her life when, despite her "tremendous desire of living", Olga moved, mostly, beyond fear and bitterness at her fate.;A fervent rationalist who prized science above religion, she corresponded with her husband, doctor, sisters, cousins and friends, pouring out impassioned thoughts on morality and social justice, love, literature and child-rearing.;The book is an epistolary gem - intellectually curious, lucid and literary (allusions to Swinburne, Shelley, Walt Whitman and others pepper her pages) - a window into Edwardian family life shaped by a powerfully progressive mother confined to her bath chair.;It is also a paean to the beauty of nature, of sunny days in Golders Hill Park, summer sojourns in seaside Norfolk and the joy and challenges of her adored, adopted children. She is at odds with her doctor who wouldn't see her in surgery because she rejected his drugs and won't have further operations because "four are enough to endure." And she challenges his Christian faith. At the beach, a strange nursemaid is despatched to rebuke Olga for letting her three-year-old son romp naked on the sand. She gives not a hoot at the prudish charge of being "dirty-minded".;An intriguing postscript to the letters points out that the Jacobys took on their children long before adoption was regulated, although the matron of Queen Charlotte's hospital found the couple unsuitable because she did not believe in placing babies above their station. Olga's social circle also judged her multiple adoptions harshly, some intimating that "bad blood" hovered over any crib containing strange genes. Matters were clearly arranged privately, but quite how the fourth baby came to join the family so near to Olga's death remains unclear.;She insists that nurses in charge of her brood follow her own enlightened lead: the quartet to be told "don't" as rarely as possible: "we are bringing up our children with no creed, just teaching them to be kind, unselfish, and willing to sacrifice sometimes a pleasure for the sake of others." Her dear husband Jack must marry again and give the children a healthy new mother. Olga anticipates a time when his life will bring him "a profound happiness as yet unknown to you".;Olga Jacoby ended her life with a sleeping-draught overdose. An inquest and press reports of her suicide raised ground-breaking questions on the "right to die" issue still unresolved today. Tragically, her two daughters took their own lives when even younger than she. Olga's letters, however, lend them, and her, immortality."; ;Madeleine Kingsley is a freelance writer;;

About the Author

Olga Jacoby (1874-1913) wrote these letters when living "under sentence of death" from a terminal heart condition, and hoped "to die with my pen in my hand". Born in Hamburg, she lived in West Hampstead, London, where they adopted four children, to the consternation of their social circle. She was a committed agnostic and rationalist; had a keen eye for social injustice; and believed passionately in an honest and "clear-sighted" approach to education. This rediscovered treasure is a picture of family life and love, interspersed with clear-headed musings on the nature of illness, loss and death. It illuminates the development of rationalist thought, humanism and liberal education and the history of adoption, and offers inspiration to those who try to come to terms with dying without religion as a solace.

Edition details

• Publisher: Skyscraper Publications
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1911072358
• ISBN 13: 9781911072355
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 254