Explore
Pricing
For Authors
Listen Now

Sign In Start free trial

Search
Explore
Library

Publish a book
Help

The Preventorium

Biography and Memoir

,

Mature

Audio only

The Preventorium

A MemoirBy Susan Annah CurrieNarrated by Vanessa Webb

Try for $0.00 Get for $25

The Preventorium

Length7h 40m

About this audiobook

Opened on February 17, 1929, the Mississippi State Preventorium operated continuously until 1976. The Mississippi Preventorium, like similar hospitals throughout the country, was an institution for sickly, anemic, and underweight children. It was established on the grounds of the Mississippi State Tuberculosis Sanitorium in the early years of the twentieth century when tuberculosis was a dreaded disease worldwide. The TB Sanitorium hospital housed those with tuberculosis, offering refuge for patients of all ages afflicted with the pernicious and contagious disease. Although located on the same medical campus, the preventorium was a separate medical institution for children; no children with TB were admitted in the sixty-year run of the hospital. The name preventorium meant a place of preventing disease as there was a fear of sickly children contracting TB. The Mississippi Preventorium was one of the last, if not the very last, of these special hospitals for children. Now closed, the preventorium housed over three thousand children, including author Susan Annah Currie. In this intimate memoir, Currie details her fifteen-month stay at the preventorium. From her arrival in May 1959 at six years old, Currie vividly explores the unique and isolating world that she and children across the country experienced. Her exacting routine, dictated by the nurses and doctors who now acted as her parents, erased the distinction between patients and created both a sense of community among the children and a deep sense of loneliness. From walking silently single file through the cold, narrow halls of the hospital to nurses recording every detail of their bathroom habits to extremely limited visitation from family, Currie's time at the preventorium changed her and those around her, leaving an indelible mark even after their return home. While many of the records from the preventorium have been lost, Currie's memoir opens to readers a lost history largely forgotten. Told in evocative prose, The Preventorium explores Currie's personal trials, both in the hospital and in the echoes of her experiences into adulthood.

Memory Psychological Coming of Age Dystopian Identity Found Family Survival Healing

Audiobook details

GenreBiography and Memoir, History

Length7 hrs 40 mins

Narrated byVanessa Webb

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateNov 15, 2022

LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1Foreword by Cynthia A. Connolly and Prologue

1110. The Most Girl Part of Me: A Brief Return Home

21. Preventorium History

1211. Holiday

32. Endless Dream

1312. Found Memories: Photos and Newspaper Articles

43. Arrival

1413. What I Never Told Anyone

54. One Child among Many

1514. All the Children Gather

Show all chaptersShow less

65. My Only Friend

1615. Homecoming

76. Fear and Ecstasy in the Night

1716. A Complicated and Fierce Woman

87. The Crux of the Matter

1817. Lasting Impressions

98. Unknown Punishment

19Epilogue: A Last Wish

109. School Days

Series

Cultures of Childhood

More from Biography and Memoir

How to Test Negative for Stupid

How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m$28 · $0

Where Cowards Go to Die

Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0

Black History Collection

Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m$18 · $0

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)George Müller43h 39m$1 · $0

Old Path White Clouds

Old Path White CloudsThich Nhat Hanh16h 39m$25

EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20

The World of Yesterday

The World of YesterdayStefan Zweig15h 39m$2 · $0

The Storyteller: Expanded

The Storyteller: ExpandedDave Grohl11h 38m$5 · $0

The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme): The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme): The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of LisieuxDe Lisieux Saint Thérèse6h 48m$2 · $0

Lessons from the Edge

Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m$40 · $0

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 3

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 3William Manchester, Paul Reid53h 24m$35

Escape from Mariupol

Escape from MariupolAdoriana Marik, Anne K. Howard5h 57m$17 · $0

The Streets of Baltimore

The Streets of BaltimoreJoe Frantz6h 52m$17

Black BoxShiori Itō6h 21m$17 · $0

My Bondage and My Freedom (Autobiography)

My Bondage and My Freedom (Autobiography)Frederick Douglass15h 36m$1 · $0

Paris (Extended Edition)

Paris (Extended Edition)Paris Hilton9h 3m$29 · $0

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3Mark Twain24h 54m$30

Fighter PilotRobin Olds17h 3m$28

The Story of John G. Paton; or, Thirty Years among South Sea Cannibals (Summarized Edition)

The Story of John G. Paton; or, Thirty Years among South Sea Cannibals (Summarized Edition)John Gibson Paton3h 13m$1

Berlin DiaryWilliam L. Shirer16h$28

More from History

The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3

The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m$46 · $0

The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 2

The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 2Shelby Foote52h 41m$30

Where Cowards Go to Die

Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0

EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20

Sword and Scimitar

Sword and ScimitarRaymond Ibrahim14h 3m$23

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Complete 6 Volume Edition)

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Complete 6 Volume Edition)Edward Gibbon179h 45m$1 · $0

JesusJames Martin18h 3m$40 · $0

Brave MenErnie Pyle20h 4m$1 · $0

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 3

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 3William Manchester, Paul Reid53h 24m$35

The Story of World War II

The Story of World War IIDonald L. Miller24h 53m$32

PostwarTony Judt43h 2m$40

Slave Narratives

Slave NarrativesUnited States. Work Projects Administration2h 22m$1 · $0

East West Street

East West StreetPhilippe Sands14h 24m$23 · $0

Their Finest Hour

Their Finest HourWinston Churchill28h 13m$2 · $0

Fighter PilotRobin Olds17h 3m$28

The Complete Histories / History Plays of William Shakespeare

The Complete Histories / History Plays of William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare27h 40m$2 · $0

Berlin DiaryWilliam L. Shirer16h$28

The Black Banners (Declassified)

The Black Banners (Declassified)Ali H. Soufan19h 15m$30

Rilla of Ingleside (Unabridged)

Rilla of Ingleside (Unabridged)Lucy Maud Montgomery13h 5m$1 · $0

The Complete Rougon-Macquart Cycle (All 20 Unabridged Novels in one volume)

The Complete Rougon-Macquart Cycle (All 20 Unabridged Novels in one volume)Émile Zola326h 28m$2 · $0

You may also like

Dwell Here and Prosper

Dwell Here and ProsperChris Eagle8h 38m$20

Never Fall Down

Never Fall DownPatricia McCormick6h 3m$24 · $0

Hi, AnxietyKat Kinsman6h 51m$24 · $0

I Have Lived a Thousand Years

I Have Lived a Thousand YearsLivia Bitton-Jackson6h 38m$20

BirdlandTracy Mack2h 54m$12

Deep Dark BluePolo Tate8h 59m$20

Ms. Hempel Chronicles

Ms. Hempel ChroniclesSarah Shun-lien Bynum5h 53m$14 · $0

Nautch BoyManish Gaekwad8h$26 · $0

Kyra, Just for Today

Kyra, Just for TodaySara Zarr7h 29m$24 · $0

BenevolenceJulie Janson10h 27m$29 · $0

Dark Room Etiquette

Dark Room EtiquetteRobin Roe12h 17m$29 · $0

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life

The Wrong Way to Save Your LifeMegan Stielstra8h 17m$26 · $0

The House of Hidden Meanings

The House of Hidden MeaningsRuPaul7h 7m$24 · $0

JFK Jr., George & Me

JFK Jr., George & MeMatt Berman4h 37m$17

A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka

A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of VodkaLev Golinkin9h 29m$20 · $0

WorserJennifer Ziegler7h 27m$17

The Unfortunates

The UnfortunatesJ K Chukwu8h 31m$26 · $0

Small StepsPeg Kehret3h 8m$15 · $0

The Testimonies of Slaves

The Testimonies of SlavesWork Projects Administration258h 52m$2 · $0

From the AshesDeborah Challinor13h 9m$33 · $0