The Family Nobody Wanted - new edition!
Lenona321
will be once again in print sometime in November with a new epilogue by her and
an introduction by a professor of humanities from Wheelock College. For those
who don't know, it's about how she and her Methodist minister husband adopted
12 kids, most of mixed ethnicities such as Asian, Anglo, Latino and Native
American whom no one else wanted. (Since this is the 1940's we're talking
about, when they tried to adopt a half-black German girl, they got nowhere and
they finally turned the fight over to an African-American couple, who also
encountered red tape but succeeded.)
To my disgust, you cannot read the 36 old reviews at Amazon.com until the
release - I could a few days ago with some sneaky search work, but now I can't
at all. I remember one recent review is long and very thoughtful and another
boldly points out that the book is not exactly great literature - "what it
lacks in intellectual matter, it makes up for in pathos." I also remember an
adoptee in Google with no connection to the family saying the book was sappy
and simplistic.
Be that as it may, I can't wait to hear what, if anything, Helen has to say
about the current controversies over mixed-race families. My guess is she'll
say her kids had no trouble relating to all kinds of people as adults and
didn't feel robbed of their backgrounds, so what's the big deal? It says that
the book inspired two movies - surprise, I only remember the 1975 TV movie! The
parents were also on Groucho's game show in the 1950's and he pretty much let
them win. Carl, sadly, died in 1963, when the youngest child would have been
about 12 - the kid would now be 50! She is now in her mid-80's. This should be
wonderful.
Lenona.
H Schinske
>Be that as it may, I can't wait to hear what, if anything, Helen has to say
>about the current controversies over mixed-race families. My guess is she'll
>say her kids had no trouble relating to all kinds of people as adults and
>didn't feel robbed of their backgrounds, so what's the big deal?
I remember that book quite well, and have often wondered how the kids got along
as adults. Especially the two who had radiation therapy for their birthmarks --
I always wondered if they got cancer from that :(
--Helen
Deborah Stevenson
Ooh, I was just thinking of those girls while reading a recent nonfiction
work on the history of x-ray technology and use that discussed this
use of x-rays and the ensuing cancer rates. One of kids just had a little
mark on her arm, as I recall, hardly anything to bother about.
Creepy to read such things later, isn't it?
Deborah Stevenson
(stev...@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu)
James and Linda Young
>Helen Doss' beautiful story of her adoptive family "The Family Nobody Wanted"
>will be once again in print sometime in November with a new epilogue by her and
>an introduction by a professor of humanities from Wheelock College.
Oh, great, I read that for the first time in junior high school
and loved it! I found a paperback copy of the book long ago and
have treasured it all these years.
>at all. I remember one recent review is long and very thoughtful and another
>boldly points out that the book is not exactly great literature - "what it
>lacks in intellectual matter, it makes up for in pathos." I also remember an
>adoptee in Google with no connection to the family saying the book was sappy
>and simplistic.
What? Just because the kids all are generally happy and healthy,
and none of them have drug problems or dad doesn't beat them or
molest them, it's "sappy and simplistic"? I'm tired of being told
that "nice families" don't exist.
>the book inspired two movies - surprise, I only remember the 1975 TV movie!
There was a second movie?
I wonder if Mrs. Doss will tell us what happened to all the kids.
I've always wondered.
Linda
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
"...What they say, don't believe;
Every hope needs room to breathe.
Show me where it says
I can't keep dreamin'.
Ain't no law that says
I can't keep dreamin'..."
.....Rupert Holmes, "Show Me Where It Says"
sionnach
"H Schinske" wrote:
>
> I remember that book quite well,
I actually still have my little SBS paperback of it. :-) And I have also
been lucky enough to see the Life Magazine article that was done on the
Dosses in the early '50s.
> Especially the two who had radiation therapy for their birthmarks --
> I always wondered if they got cancer from that :(
Oooooh. I'd forgotten about that. :-( I have a friend who actually had
radioactive bits *implanted* in her neck to shrink her adenoids- she's been
battling various cancers for a number of years now.
Lenona321
>>boldly points out that the book is not exactly great literature - "what it
>>lacks in intellectual matter, it makes up for in pathos." I also remember an
>>adoptee in Google with no connection to the family saying the book was sappy
>>and simplistic.
>
>What? Just because the kids all are generally happy and healthy,
>and none of them have drug problems or dad doesn't beat them or
>molest them, it's "sappy and simplistic"? I'm tired of being told
>that "nice families" don't exist.
>Linda
Actually, I had the impression the adoptee's complaint was more about the
"simplistic" aspects. (She said the book "embraces the usual adoption mythos."
To read the whole thing, search in Google under alt.adoption and "Helen Doss".
The portrait of the person's own adoptive parents is amazing - they were quite
ahead of their time, apparently.) That is, since Helen was willing to discuss
racism well enough in the chapter "All God's Children," she could have talked a
good deal more about the very real emotional and ethical issues of adoption in
general (how young pregnant women were routinely lied to and manipulated, for
example). Of course, an adoptee with 11 adopted siblings is not likely to feel
as socially isolated as an adoptee with none, but even then I'm sure families
of 12 kids were somewhat rare.
One thing I'm interested in is how today's parents and grandparents who
remember the book fondly are going to explain to young kids how Carl and Helen
could possibly call atrocious people like Mrs. Pickles "friends" as opposed to
"acquaintances." Nowadays, after all, we're not even supposed to say hello to
such people when we run into them, and even back then, I would hope most whites
wouldn't say that God meant for blacks to be slaves. So telling kids that such
people were the majority of whites and that you had to make friends with them
if you ever hoped to convert them isn't going to fly too well. (Yes, I remember
what MP says near the end.)
Lenona.
Karen
did a book report on it when I was in grade 7 or 8. It was my sister's book
and she still has it. I didn't see the movie....I wish I had.
-Karen
--
Visit my website at:
http://www.bitstop.ca/
"Lenona321" <leno...@aol.com> wrote in message
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Kris Baker
"Lenona321" <leno...@aol.com> wrote
>Carl, sadly, died in 1963, when the youngest child would have
>been about 12 - the kid would now be 50! She is now in her
>mid-80's. This should be wonderful.
> Lenona.
The youngest -- Alex (I've not read the book, but I worked
with Alex Doss in the mid-1970s).
Kris
Lenona321
>with Alex Doss in the mid-1970s).
>
>Kris
Er...not quite. Gregory was the youngest by more than a year.
For those who haven't gotten their feverish hands on the new edition......
SPOILER SPACE
(If memory serves - Donny is now a computer wizard, as are Teddy and Diane,
Timmy is in real estate, Alex slips my mind, sorry to say, but I think he now
lives in Korea with his wife, Susie and Dorothy are artists, Laura (now spelled
Lora) is a beautician, Rita cares for old people (presumably as a nurse, but
maybe not) Elaine is a housewife, and Richard was a farmer before he died of
cancer. Gregory, I'm sorry to say, died tragically after a mugging - there were
no details as to when or what he worked at.
Strange thing, though, is that Helen said that Carl lived to see most of his
grandchildren before he himself died of cancer, but one or two sources I read
said he died in 1963! She has remarried and lives in Yuba City, CA. Most of the
adoptees are now grandparents themselves!
Lenona.
Linda M. Young
> I loved this book!! I can't remember how many times I read it, and I even
> did a book report on it when I was in grade 7 or 8. It was my sister's book
> and she still has it. I didn't see the movie....I wish I had.
Actually, I was a bit annoyed at the movie. They changed all the kids' names
and some of the situations. (We're talking the one with Shirley Jones and
James Olson, correct? Has anyone seen the other movie? What is it called?)
Has anyone read the reprint? Just wondering if any of it has been edited
(like the situation with them trying to adopt Gretchen and someone in Carl's
family -- or was it Helen's? -- response to the prospect of having a
grandchild who had "Negro blood").
Thanks,
Linda
Karen
--
Visit my website at:
http://www.bitstop.ca/
"Lenona321" <leno...@aol.com> wrote in message
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Lenona321
the time who couldn't verbally express his glee over Donny's airplane!
Also, Teddy and Timmy were in Vietnam - and returned.
Lenona.
Cori
copy in a perfect dust jacket, with individual portraits of each child
in little circles, personally signed by Carl Doss! It has since
disappeared and sadly not returned.
Cori
was disappointed with the movie after reading the book for the same
reasons, but glad the movie made me aware of this wonderful book! At
that time, I was able to go check the old LIFE magazine out of the
library. It has since been discarded. I remember the remark about
the little "Moorish-looking" girl. Carl's mother said, "No n-word
child is going to call me Grandma!" I hope it wasn't censored; the
incident was quite telling. In fact, this girl's life story would no
doubt make an interesting book in itself. I wonder if there was some
culture shock as far as the children's marriages--for instance, a
child of Asian ancestry not being accepted by whites, but having
little in common with an Asian raised by Asians. Perhaps by the time
the kids were old enough to marry this was less of a problem than when
they were growing up? Certainly mixed marriages resulted from WWII.