Cull, George Samuel

Possibly the first published Canadian deaf author, when in 1862 there appeared his The Travels and Adventures of George Samuel Cull (Deaf and Dumb Cripple), Written by Himself... (revised in 1863 as The Youthful Travels and Adventures of George Samuel Cull, a Deaf and Dumb Cripple, the Son of a Soldier in the Royal Artillery, Including a Sketch of Seventeen Years' Residence in the Northern and Southern Parts of England, and Five Years' Traveling through Canada and the United States). Born at Woolwich, England; deaf at 8 months from "convulsive fits". His family moved to Manchester, England, where he attended the Deaf and Dumb Institution at Old Trafford at age 6, but left school in 1854 to work as a tailor. Unable to hold any job for very long due to a poor attitude towards work, he eventually emigrated to Canada in 1857, but continued to be unsuccessful in a variety of jobs until finally, in southern Virginia, he hit a lucrative business in peddling copies of a book written by his mother. Returning to Virginia one day after picking up a new batch of books from Canada, he fell underneath a train, losing a leg and one finger; he recuperated back home in Canada. He went back to his book peddling, lived with his mother in a variety of places, and tried the printing trade but was forced to give it up after less than a year due to failing vision. He decided to make his living by writing and selling his autobiography, but not long after its publication, apparently went back to book peddling. Died of apoplexy.