Courageous, Inspirational Authors Honored

To celebrate National Stuttering Awareness Week, May 12-18, the Stuttering Foundation on May 13th honored four authors whose recent books are widely acclaimed by both critics and readers alike.

In a reception at The Lotos Club, a gathering place for writers, journalists and critics since 1870, Foundation President Jane Fraser noted, “Authors with the courage to share their stories and inspire others hold a special place in the hearts of the 70 million people worldwide who struggle to speak.

“An intimate look into the world of stuttering makes these four books so very special. These authors have truly captured the very essence of stuttering.

“Because books have played such an important role in our organization for seven decades, we are pleased to recognize these shining stars,” added Fraser.

Those honored at the event include:
• Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, A Boy and A Jaguar
• Vince Vawter, Paperboy
• Scott Damian, V-V-Voice: A Stutterer’s Odyssey
• Anna Olswanger, Greenhorn

From the Fall 2014 Newsletter

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Kenyon Martin

Kenyon Martin, the basketball sensation who was named to the NBA’s All Star Team in 2004, joins other famous people who stutter in a new brochure. The brochure - which unfolds into a small poster - is available free of charge from The Stuttering Foundation.

The poster is intended to give children and adults who stutter inspiration as they grapple with their speech disorder.

Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz, Ph.D., who passed away in 2018, was an explorer, wildlife conservationist, and author. He established the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Myanmar, which is about the size of the state of Vermont.

His love for animals began when he was very young.

Winston Churchill

Seeking to "remove Winston Churchill's stutter by second guessing the diagnosis" indicates neither a truthful retelling of history nor an informed opinion about a complex speech disorder, say experts in the field of speech-language pathology.

Recent news reports that quote Dr. John Mather, a Washington physician, as saying that Churchill's stutter "is a lie" brought adamant critical response from specialists in the field of stuttering and fluency disorders.

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

Lewis Carroll

The recent Disney version of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland, garnered a great deal of media hype. Even though the mainstream media has not made mention that Carroll was a person who stuttered, his family history gives credence to the discovery of the genetic link to stuttering. Carroll was born to parents who were first cousins; almost all of their eleven children, three girls and seven boys, struggled with stuttering past childhood.