***

On my near side–a thin scatter–three books I judge good enough to spend time re-reading:

Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., parent of a son, Infantile Autism:  The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior, (1964) still in print, an award-winning classic, available on Amazon.

Dorothy Beavers, Ph.D., parent of a son, Autism:  Nightmare Without End, (Ashley Books 1981, 1982), long out of print, available on Alibris.

Catherine Maurice, Ph.D., parent of a son, and a daughter, Let Me Hear Your Voice, (Knopf, 1993), still in print, available on Amazon.

And the historical Autism Research International Newsletters collection, then ongoing, now at https://www.autism.com/arri-newsletter.

All of these authored by observant, intelligent and clearly-loving parents, who become my new evening intimates, Bernie, Dorothy and Catherine.

These, I will re-read mindfully, with highlighters.

Three colors of highlighters:  yellow, pink, green—helpful, harmful, neutral, as relevant to the current case—my Ruffin.

That’s it, all the rest—a deep pile–smell faintly, or highly, of crap.

 

Mary Jane White, MFA Iowa Writers’ Workshop, NEA Fellowships (in poetry and translation). Tsvetaeva translations: Starry Sky to Starry Sky (1988); New Year’s, an elegy for Rilke (Adastra Press 2007); Poem of the Hill (The New England Review); Poem of the End (The Hudson Review), reprinted in Poets Translate Poets, (Syracuse 2013).