The Little Locksmith

The Little Locksmith
First edition
AuthorKatharine Butler Hathaway
LanguageEnglish
PublisherCoward-McCann (first edition)
The Feminist Press (2000 edition)
Publication dateOctober 25, 1943
Pages237

The Little Locksmith is a 1943 memoir by Katharine Butler Hathaway about the effects of spinal tuberculosis on her childhood and adult life.

Synopsis

Hathaway recounts a childhood immobilized on a treatment board, her hard-won mobility, artistic ambitions, and later life in Castine, Maine. Selections appeared in The Atlantic shortly before book publication.

Reception and in pop culture

The book was reviewed contemporaneously in Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times, the Beaumont Journal, the Calgary Herald, and The Toronto Star, while reviews of the 2000 edition were taken in Newsday and Publishers Weekly.

The book is referenced in the Gilmore Girls episode "Help Wanted".

Publication history

References

  1. 1 2 "The Little Locksmith". Kirkus Reviews. October 1, 1943. Retrieved August 27, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Wagenknecht, Edward (October 24, 1943). "A Shining Faith; The Little Locksmith". The New York Times. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
  3. ↑ Hathaway, Katharine Butler (February 1, 1943). "The Little Locksmith". The Atlantic. ISSN 2151-9463. Retrieved September 13, 2025.
  4. ↑ "New Books". Beaumont Journal. October 27, 1943. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Hill, Lettie Ann (November 6, 1943). "She Always Looked Out of the Window". p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Poignant and Starry-Eyed is The Little Locksmith". The Toronto Star. October 16, 1943. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Daly, Meg (September 3, 2000). "A Butterfly, Released". Newsday. p. B14 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "The Little Locksmith". Publishers Weekly. July 3, 2000. Retrieved August 27, 2026.
  9. ↑ "The Little Locksmith: A Memoir". Feminist Press. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2011.