Lobster Boat Captain Learns to Read at 90, Becomes Author at 98
- Posted on March 10, 2012 at 11:33pm by
Erica Ritz
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James Arruda Henry, a lobster-boat captain from Mystic, CT, has an incredible story. For the first ninety years of his life, he couldn’t read or write a word, not even his own name. According to CNN, he said:
I kept it to myself. I learned how to be a pretty good bluffer in those days. No one ever knew except my wife, Jean. We were married for two years before she found out.
When we was married I took care of everything, you know, paying bills and things like that, but I knew how to do things without having to write anything. After a while I had to work more and it got harder so I told her I think she should go to secretary school to learn how to take care of things. She asked me why I wasn’t going to do it anymore and when I told her I couldn’t read or write, boy was she some surprised.
But aside from her I didn’t tell nobody else.
At 90-years old, Henry heard a story about George Dawson, the son of a slave who learned to read and write at 98. “Geez, I said. If he can do it, I can do it. So I decided to give it a try.” He elaborated:
[My nephew] Bobby gave me the ambition to do it when he told me not to call him because he wouldn’t answer. He said write me a letter. And I tell you, that was the best thing he could have done because I really was determined to do that. I’m really proud of that letter…I even kept it and had it framed. It’s on the wall at my house. I’m real proud of that letter.
But after his wife died, Henry said, “I stopped everything and didn’t touch the books. I think I went four or five years like that.”
By age 96, his granddaughters and a tutor he had hired encouraged him to continue in his studies, and he soon found that reading wasn’t enough. He wanted to write. According to his website, “James began quietly practicing his own signature at the dining room table and went on to hand write his first book.”
The result? A man who was illiterate at 90 became a published author at 98.
His book is called In a Fisherman’s Language: an Autobiography by Captain James Arrudo Henry.
(Photo: fishermanslanguage.com)
Congressman Joe Courtney even honored Captain Henry on the House floor. Watch the video, below:
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GOD3USA
Posted on March 14, 2012 at 12:19pmLesson to be Learned: Never Give Up!
Report Post »Maybe ‘progressives’ can still Learn to Stop Destroying the USA!!
OniKaze
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 12:11pmI can’t imagine not being able to read or write…. And thankfully, now, this man will never have to know that feeling again…
Kudos… good sir.
Report Post »Steve0218
Posted on March 12, 2012 at 7:12amThere is a great difference between intelligence and wisdom. Intelligence can be measured by IQ, but wisdom is far greater. This man seems like he is very wise!
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 6:39pmOh good for him! What a great accomplishment! If my Dad was still alive, he’d be 100 years old this year. He had a 4th grade education & was the smartest man I ever knew. Men of this age have more gumption than a lot of modern day guys. They can (could) do anything!
Report Post »HUSSAR
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 1:01pmHe’s lucky to have missed Obama-care. It‘s likely he wouldn’t be around to learn to read and write since it would have been financially unacceptable…after all why bother keeping the old ones around, they no longer contribute to the system etc.
Report Post »Satrix
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 10:37pmWe have to pass it before we read it…
Report Post »watashbuddyfriend
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 12:21pmGoes to show, and prove that you are never too old to learn!
Now, liberals, listen up, when you go to the polls this November 2012.
Just pull the lever that reflects the R, as a last resort, if you have not learned your lesson, after 3plus years!
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 10:52amGood for him.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 11:30amditto
Report Post »dusko
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 8:32amIf he can learn at read and write at 90, I can learn to play guitar at 40!
Report Post »goinggreenduringglobalwarming
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 9:40amI’m teaching myself how to play at 62. Check out cntplywll on you tube
Report Post »Satrix
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 10:39pmIf he can read at 90, maybe a liberal can become conservative at… never mind, I got a little excited.
Report Post »Eff the Poor
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 10:43pm@ goinggreenduringglobalwarming.. don’t worry about that global warming crap.. but do learn the guitar. Its way more important. Really…
Report Post »youdidthis
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 6:51amhttp://www.infowars.com/media-cover-up-of-obama-impeachment-exposed/
Report Post »BehindBlueEyes
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 8:24amThanks for that link. I hope this information can get out to all Americans. This MSM will do everything they can to suppress this from the people. We need to fight this insidious fundamental transformation of America.
Report Post »Diane TX
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 6:14amThis just proves that human beings always do what they want to do. This also applies to children. When I was five years old, I asked my father to read me the newspaper’s comic section. He wisely told me no. He also told me that if I wanted to know what the comics said, I should learn to read. I struggled and struggled, but eventually, I taught myself to read before I was six. My motive was to read the comics. My self-taught reading ability was so good, that by the time I was eleven, my reading comprehension scored at first year, college level.
It’s both good and bad that this man had no desire or motive to learn to read and write, until he was ninety. It appears that there wasn’t any reason for him to do so. However, there will always be the question what “might” he had written, had he had the desire at a much younger age.
At age ninety-eight, he probably won’t write anything else.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 4:06amGreat story. I wonder, though, why he was unable to learn at a younger age? Did our glorious school system fail him?
Report Post »A Doctors Labor Is Not My Right
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 5:11am“His book is called In a Fisherman’s Language: an Autobiography by Captain James Arrudo Henry.”
Aye, and ‘is book be rated-ARRRH fer the salty language, ya see.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 3:17amThank you Blaze for the wonderful story. What’s beautiful is that it shows the power of the human spirit and how anything can be accomplished when you put your mind to it.
On a sadder note, we have OWSers and a welfare society who will not even THINK of trying to accomplish their dreams and goals which can easily be done themselves like this man 98 years young. God help us if the “gimmie” generation wins.
Report Post »LeadNotFollow
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 1:44am…
Report Post »It’s never too late to learn.
Mr. Henry is living proof.
God bless him.
Z
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 1:15amWell done sir. Well done.
Report Post »txbigfoot
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 1:10amAwesome!
Report Post »Best catch ever.
auntmoxie.com
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 12:21amNever, never, never, never, never, never give up. (Did I miscount my “nevers”?)
Report Post »Z
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 1:14amnever to many nevers
Report Post »asybot12
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 3:45amor evers
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on March 11, 2012 at 12:17amIt will be found that he actually wrote “Dreams of my Father”. I reads like an Lobster boat captain wrote it, or a brain dead leftist.
Good for him by the way. But what a procrastinator.
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