Martha Mason (writer)

Martha Mason (May 31, 1937 — May 4, 2009)^[1] was a writer born and based in Lattimore, North Carolina.

Early life

Afflicted with polio at age 11, Mason was sent home from the hospital in an iron lung, in which she remained for her entire life. She preferred the iron lung to newer ventilators as it didn't require intubation, surgery, or hospitalization.

She completed high school with daily visits from her teachers, and graduated first in her class with highest honors.

Mason moved to Boiling Springs with her parents to enroll in Gardner-Webb College (now University), earning an associate's degree at age 21. She then attended (again with her parents' accompaniment) Wake Forest College (also now University), earning a bachelor's degree in English in 1960. She was first in her classes at both colleges.

After her education, Mason returned to Lattimore and started work at a local newspaper; her mother took dictation of her work. Shortly after, her father was incapacitated by a heart attack and her mother was unable to assist her in her work.

Later life

Mason returned to writing in the mid 1990s when advancements in voice recognition technology enabled her to operate a computer on her own, giving her the ability to dictate and edit, as well as to browse the Internet.

This latter factor was particularly significant for Mason. While her highly social and independent lifestyle (she hosted dinner parties and managed her own household, for example) would probably have only been possible in a tight-knit community (Lattimore's current population is approximately 400), her broad interests were not in tune with small-town perspectives.

She wrote a memoir, Breath: Life in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung, which was published in 2003. She was also the subject of Martha in Lattimore (2005), a documentary film by Mary Dalton. Mason also appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary about polio The Final Inch (2009).

References

1. ^ Fox, Margalit (May 9, 2009). "Martha Mason, Who Wrote Book About Her Decades in an Iron Lung, Dies at 71". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/us/10mason.html. Retrieved May 10, 2009. 

External links

• Martha in Lattimore at the Internet Movie Database
• The Final Inch at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Mason, Martha
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Short description
Date of birth	1937
Place of birth
Date of death	2009
Place of death