Immediately below
are some quick links. (To return, use "Back" on your Web browser.) But
there's much more here than these links provide. You may prefer a leisurely
scroll down the page. It's your choice. Enjoy. (This page was first
dedicated at the University of Iowa's Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing
Clinic on April 16, 1997 -- what would have been Wendell Johnson's 91st
birthday.)
This page was created in 1997; last substantively
updated July 18, 2000; the reference to "Retroactive Ethical Judgments
. . ." added July 6, 2003; and revised slightly June 14, 2009. -- Nicholas
Johnson
My father -- known
to me as "Dad," to his students as "Dr. Wendell Johnson," and to his close
friends as "Jack" -- was my best friend. This page has been created as
a memorial and source for today's students and practitioners of speech
pathology and of general semantics.
I believe it is an appropriate medium
for such a memorial. Before his death Dad wrote of his electronics hobby
-- at that time the work he was doing with audio tape recorders,* including
the invention of a rather ingenious dual-deck machine to enable individuals
to hear, and react to, their own speech. I am confident that, had he been
alive in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he would have been among the first
to be exploring a PC, the Internet and Web.
Born in Roxbury, Kansas, in 1906, he died
of a heart attack at his home in Iowa City, Iowa, August 29, 1965. He was
then 59; I was 30. A writer, he died literally with a pen in his hand,
drafting the entry
on "Speech Defects" for the Encyclopedia
Britannica.
Dad began life as a stutterer. As he put
it, he became a speech pathologist because he needed one. He was one of
the world's first in the 1920s and 1930s at the University of Iowa.
But he was much more, as well -- as these
audio links to his "Plogglies"
story, or samples of lectures
from October 1962, will illustrate for old friends and new acquaintances.
(Here also is a link to my own remarks
at the dedication of this Web page on what would have been his 91st birthday,
April 16, 1997, and the story
in the Iowa City Press-Citizen about that event.)
* See, for example, the reference in the last
section of his curriculum
vitae (the essay headed "Sidelights"), and the chapter from Living
With Change at page 185.
Foreword
When my father died in 1965 the family
received literally thousands of moving letters of condolence and anecdote
from around the world. He had touched so many lives in his brief 59 years,
and in ways that often left those he encountered full of an admiration,
appreciation and affection they never forgot.
That fact is relevant to this Web site.
(1) It is because he was that kind of a person that I think it is worth
my time -- and yours -- to be reminded of him through the material available
here. (2) There are still many individuals who knew him personally. If
they have access to the Web, it may be more pleasant than sad for them
to visit again in this way with their old friend "Jack." (3) The new waves
of students, teachers and practitioners of speech pathology -- and of general
semantics -- may find these links a useful way to satisfy some curiosity
about this early pioneer in their specialties of study and practice. It
would be an odd science indeed if all of his 20th Century insights
and theories were still thought valid today; but they will always be prominent
in the origins of these fields. (4) And it is also relevant because this
page, and its links, are the product of those thousands of individuals.
They literally wrote some of the introductory pieces linked below. They
certainly inspired, and contributed to, Dad's 35 years of research and
writing (1930-1965). And it is they, and their successors, who are carrying
it on today. (As an inadequate tip of the iceberg, here is a list of the
authors of doctoral
dissertations awarded by the Iowa program from 1928 through 1954. For
what is probably the most thorough history of that program, see Dorothy
Moeller, Speech Pathology & Audiology: Iowa Origins of a Discipline
(Iowa City: The University of Iowa, 1975).)
Just as the consequences of Dad's work
live on, and change from day to day, so too does this Web site. Contribute
your own building block. Send me your suggestions -- of links that might
be included to material already on the Web, links you've created back to
this page, anecdotes you'd like to share, text or photos you think should
be scanned and linked. My eamil address, substituting the "@" for the "[at]"
is: mailbox [at] nicholasjohnson [dot] org.
Brief Introductory
Pieces
We begin with some introductory pieces. The
first is by Linda Alexander. It appeared in the Winter 1993 issue of the
Iowa Alumni Quarterly (Carol Harker, Editor; UI
Alumni Association, Iowa City IA 52242-1797). It is called "Figure
of Speech."
The University
of Iowa was central to Dad's professional life. The photo at the top
of this page shows him in front of that University's central landmark,
"The Old Capitol." He arrived in Iowa City in 1926, earned a B.A. with
honors in English in 1928, and two degrees in psychology: an M.A. in 1929
and Ph.D. in 1931. He spent much of his life attempting to create the Department
of Speech Pathology and Audiology which now exists at Iowa, and is housed
in the Center which bears his name, and was built after his death, the
Wendell Johnson
Speech and Hearing Center.
Not incidentally, Wendell Johnson met
my mother, Edna, at the University of Iowa. Born in 1905, she had also
grown up on a family farm -- one of three girls near Galva, Iowa. At the
University she further developed her abilities as a talented poet and dancer,
and probably became, if anything, Dad's academic better. I returned to
Iowa City from Washington in 1980, in largest measure to be with her following
her cancer surgery. It was some of our best time together. She died peacefully
at home in 1989, still quoting poetry at length and exhibiting her wry
humor until the end.
Following her death my wife, Mary Vasey,
and I moved back into the family home that Dad had purchased in 1941, where
I lived until 1952, my sister, Kate, until 1956, my Dad until 1965, and
Mother until 1989.
For those interested in the skeletal biographical
details, a link is provided to Who's
Who in America -- that is, the entry in the last edition of Who's
Who in America after Dad's death that still carried an entry. For those
who want more information, there is his more detailed (indeed, the current
expression would be "awesome") curriculum
vitae and the bibliography
of his writing. This page is not intended to be academic, thorough
-- or even balanced -- just snippits and samples. Hopefully, however, there
are enough references here for anyone who would like to pursue his
life and work in greater depth to do so.
Among Dad's students, and later colleagues,
was the late Dean Williams -- a family friend with whom Mother and I shared
Thanksgiving dinners during the 1980s until Dean's tragic death. He wrote
a nice essay about Dad that was published in the University's student newspaper,
the Daily Iowan, in 1992. It was subsequently reprinted in the journal
of the International Society
for General Semantics, ETC. A Review of General Semantics --
an organization and journal that Dad helped start. Dean Williams' piece
is called "Remembering
Wendell Johnson." (For a delightful letter from Dad to Dean Williams
as a little boy, thanking him for some chickens -- a letter Dean Williams
saved in his desk drawer for a half-century -- see the textual background,
and full quotation of the letter, at the end of my remarks
on the occasion of the dedication of this Web page, April 16, 1997.)
(Having mentioned ETC., here also,
incidentally, is a copy of an article Dad wrote for the first issue of
that journal -- volume one, number one -- in 1943. He called it "You
Can't Write Writing." It was reprinted in the Winter 1992-93 issue,
from which this copy was obtained, as well as in a number of anthologies,
and is as timely for teachers and students today as when he wrote it.)
Another student, Joseph L. Stewart -- who
wrote Mother every year on the anniversary of Dad's death -- has provided
a longer and more detailed essay of reminiscence in that same issue of
ETC. It is called, simply, "Wendell
Johnson: A Memoir."
Because
I Stutter -- A Teenager's Autobiography
There would be little point in providing
links here to the full text of everything Dad wrote. There were literally
hundreds of books, articles, monographs and book reviews -- not to mention
all the masters theses and doctoral dissertations he supervised. Most are
still available in hard copy in libraries somewhere and can be tracked
down with the use of library hard copy indexes and electronic search techniques.
But a bibliography
of them, and a sampling from some of his works, may be of interest.
His masters thesis was published commercially
by D. Appleton in 1930. That fact alone represents no mean accomplishment!
The book has, of course, long been out of print -- although it is still
covered by copyright. There are, to the best of my knowledge, no copies
available from used book stores. Copies have been lost from some libraries.
Thus, this Web site is, so far as I know, one of the few sources for the
book. The text has been scanned and is available here in full, subject
to the copyright terms explained within the text.
The book is titled Because
I Stutter. Even discounting for the fact he was my father, I think
you will share my sense that it is a remarkable work for a 23-year-old:
beautifully written, unusually candid and insightful, a self-revealing
illustration of how one's origins affect destinations, description of life
in 1910s and 1920s America, and, of course, a speech pathology classic
-- one of the first works of any kind about "stuttering," and still one
of the very rare descriptions of feelings and function from the perspective
of the person who stutters.
As remarkable as the book may be for what
it is, it does not purport to be, and could not be, based on any of the
research findings from the 35 years following its publication. Two
volumes that do are Stuttering in Children and Adults (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press,
1955), and The Onset of Stuttering: Research Findings and Implications
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 1959). There are many other books which he wrote, co-authored,
or edited. There are also hundreds of articles and monographs. Stuttering
in Children and Adults contains "A Bibliography of University of Iowa
Studies of Stuttering through 1954" that runs 17 pages of very small type.
(See the bibliography
for more detail.)
Drawing upon these two volumes, he produced
a third, Stuttering and What You Can Do About It (Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1961), written to reach a larger audience. (It
was also published in paperback: Stuttering and What You Can Do About
It (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1961), as a "Dolphin Handbook,"
C-349, and in Japanese and Turkish language editions. Adil Uskudarli, who
prepared the first Turkish translation, completed a second edition in late
1999.)
Just as Because I Stutter provides
insights into all youth, especially those with disabilities of some kind,
and not just stutterers, so does Stuttering and What You Can Do About
It offer far more than a "how to" cure for stuttering. It is a mystery
story, a case study of how Dad, and his colleagues at Iowa, went about
designing and executing scientific research regarding a phenomenon about
which virtually nothing was known. There was no "library research" to be
done; no teachers, consultants, or experts to help. The story of what they
did, and when, and why, and then what, can provide insight for others confronting
comparably original research assignments. How they formulated, and then
answered, the questions is a mystery story unfolding. (Of course, the book
also provides some useful guidance and insight for parents and stutterers.)
The whole book is not here. It is available
in libraries. What is excerpted here are the dedication, or introduction,
"With Appreciation and Best Wishes," and the first chapter, "In Search
of Beginnings and Endings." Click here for these excerpts from Stuttering
and What You Can Do About It.
Among the many professional organizations
he helped organize or served in one way or another is what was originally
the American Speech and Hearing Association -- now the American
Speech-Language-Hearing Association and some 87,000 members strong
-- which he served as President, and for which he helped create the American
Speech and Hearing Foundation.
This is (1) a photo, (2) of a painting,
(3) of a photo. In the lobby of the Wendell
Johnson Speech and Hearing Center building hangs a large work painted
by Cloy Kent after Dad died. The family thought her choice of scene captured
his spirit better than a stiff, staged pose with hand on globe or back
of chair. Ms. Kent studied many photos, and drew on them all -- but especially
one of him engaged in one of the things he loved best, the clinical work
that provided the satisfaction of enabling him to help persons who stutter,
one at a time. Since the original creation of this memorial Web page, the
answer to the burning question, "Who
is that boy in the picture?" has been found -- along with a wonderful
story of life in the early 1960s with Dad and his students.
In addition to his contributions as a speech
pathologist, Dad was a leading figure in the general semantics movement.
(The online Encyclopedia Britannica
entry for "General Semantics" says that it is "a philosophy of language-meaning
that was developed by Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), a Polish-American scholar,
and furthered by S.I. Hayakawa, Wendell Johnson, and others; it is the
study of language as a representation of reality.")
Indeed, if you are already familiar with
his writing you know that the insights and analyses made possible with
general semantics were central to his analyses of the onset of stuttering
and other speech defects, as well as disabilities generally. (In the latter
connection, I have also provided here the text of his Iowa commencement
address titled "The
Language of Responsibility." It was delivered in August 1961, published
in the Alumni Review (vol. 14, no. 5, 1961), the May 1962 ETC.
(vol. 19, no. 1), and slightly revised as chapter 8, "Speaking the Language
of Responsibility," in Living With Change.)
To grossly oversimplify, general semantics
is the study of the ways in which our language structure can affect our
behavior -- and often not for the better. As Dad used to say, "Humans are
the only animals able to talk themselves into difficulties that would not
otherwise exist." As a result, general semantics is a valuable set of tools
and skills to bring to any undertaking, from managing a drug store to engaging
in the highest levels of international diplomacy. It has been used to advantage
by professionals in virtually every academic and professional discipline.
If you would like to read a brief introduction
and overview, take a look at his "The
Communication Process and General Semantic Principles" (from Wilbur
Schramm, Mass Communications (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
2d ed. 1975). I am indebted to Carmen
Clark (the moderator of the Science and Sanity Reading List)
for reminding me of this paper when I was searching for a brief reading
for my law students.
As a young boy I found in these tools a
power of heady proportions in interacting with our learned, adult house
guests. You may find of interest a nostalgic piece of mine about growing
up in the home of one of the founders of general semantics. It was presented
as the 1995 Alfred
Korzybski Memorial Lecture for the Institute
of General Semantics.
The book of Dad's that probably garnered
the most devoted adherents, sold the most copies, and stayed in print the
longest (it is still available from the International
Society for General Semantics; all royalties go to ISGS) is People
in Quandaries: The Semantics of Personal Adjustment, published by Harper
& Brothers in 1946. Because the entire book is still widely available
in libraries -- and from ISGS, and is protected by copyright -- only one
chapter is linked here by way of illustration. If that chapter interests
you in reading more you can easily find the book. (If you would like to
read some passages of People in Quandaries in French, check out
Michel Dussandier's Sémantique
Générale.)
One of general semantics' most popular
areas of application is the field of psychology. Dad describes what he
calls the "IFD" disease as one of the most common maladies he encountered
as a consulting psychologist. It's a chapter I have often shared with friends.
And I share it now with you. He titled it "Verbal
Cocoons".
However, the book that he most enjoyed
creating, and thought perhaps his best writing, was titled Your Most
Enchanted Listener (New York: Harper
& Brothers, 1956). (It was also published in paperback under the
title Verbal Man: The Enchantment of Words (New York: Collier Books,
1965, No. 04669.) The excerpts here are chapter 1 ("There Might Once Have
Been a Wise Old Frenchman") and chapter 7 ("Seeing What Stares Us in the
Face"). The former is a charming introduction; the latter a succinct statement
of his view of a scientific method that can be applied to everyday life.
Here are those excerpts from Your
Most Enchanted Listener.
Following his death, his colleague, Dorothy
Moeller, produced from his unpublished writing and lectures a marvelous
little book entitled Living With Change: The Semantics of Coping
(New York: Harper & Row,
1972), also in paperback. (She described the authors as "Observations by
Wendell Johnson Selected and Synthesized by Dorothy Moeller.") In an age
when business, and other literature, is emphasizing the need to observe,
innovate, and deal with rapid change in creative ways, Living With Change
seems especially timely. Here is an excerpt from Living
With Change.
Dad and I in the Cabinet Room at the White
House. We are standing before a podium with the Presidential seal. It is
March 1, 1964, and President Lyndon B. Johnson is having me sworn in as
the U.S. Maritime Administrator. All my life to that point I had often
been referred to as "Wendell Johnson's son" -- and proud to be. On this
occasion, a reporter approached Dad and said, "You must be Nicholas Johnson's
father." Dad often told the story and, as you can see, was seemingly even
more pleased with the occasion -- and his new title -- than was
the new, 29-year-old Maritime Administrator.
Finally, feel free to send me your suggestions
for additions to this Web page (or any other comments) by e-mail: mailbox
[at] nicholasjohnson [dot] org.
