Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille

Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille, by Russell Freedman, is a biography of Louis Braille (1809-1852), innovator of the eponymous braille alphabet for reading and writing for blind individuals. Russell Freedman was a renowned journalist and nonfiction author. He specialized in biographies of inspirational individuals, usually writing for an audience of children and young adults. He received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, renamed the Children's Literature Legacy Award, which recognizes writers who have made substantial contributions to children’s literature. This guide refers to the 1997 Clarion Books edition.

Content Warning: The source material uses an outdated, offensive term for people with intellectual disabilities, which is replicated in this guide only through a direct quote.

Summary

Louis Braille was born in the small French town of Coupvray in 1809. At three years old, young Braille accidentally struck himself in the eye with one of his father’s tools (his father was a harness and saddle maker). His eye became infected, and the infection soon spread to his other eye, leaving Braille completely blind before he turned four.

Braille’s father fashioned him a cane, and Braille soon learned his way around his home and the village.