The Little Locksmith

This early 20th century memoir of a woman’s faith in the face of debilitating disease is a “remarkably un-self-pitying book remains poignant and truthful” (Publishers Weekly).

In 1895, a specialist straps five-year-old Katharine Hathaway, then suffering from spinal tuberculosis, to a board with halters and pulleys in a failed attempt to prevent her from becoming a “hunchback” like the “little locksmith” who does odd jobs at her family’s home. Forced to endure her confinement for ten years, Katharine remains immobile until age fifteen, only to find that none of it has prevented her from developing a deformity of her own.

stands as a testimony to Katharine’s aspirations and desires-for independence, love, and the pursuit of her art.

Author Biography

Katharine Butler Hathaway (1890-1942) grew up in Salem, Massachusetts. After attending Radcliffe College, she lived and wrote in Maine, and later in New York City and Paris, where she was a part of the vibrant artists’ culture of the 1920s. In the early 1930s she returned to Maine with her husband. The Little Locksmith was published a year after her death.