I am currently mid-way through a very intriguing, yet also a very heart-breaking book entitled "The True History of the Elephant Man - The Definitive Account of the Tragic and Extraordinary Life of Joseph Merrick" co-written by Michael Howard and Peter Ford.
This biography is about Joseph Merrick, who was a young man that suffered major physical deformities during his life (he was born in 1862 and died in 1890). Joseph had very few joyful moments in his short and extremely difficult life, and yet it's been said by those who were close to him that he had a beautiful soul and treated everyone he knew with utmost dignity and respect.
For me the most important aspect of Joseph's life was that he was a devout Christian (due in large part because of the strong Christian faith of his mother). Psalm 23 was his favorite part of the Bible, which he would often recite out loud before going to sleep.
I highly recommend this book, as well as the 1980 movie "The Elephant Man" starring John Hurt (as Merrick) and Anthony Hopkins (as Merrick's doctor). This movie is one of my all-time favorites (although there are a small hand full of inaccuracies in it - for example in the movie Merrick is called John, but his real name was Joseph). The majority of the film is true to Joseph Merrick's life story.
Here is a trailer for the movie for those of you who may not have seen the film yet.
[video=youtube_share;ye4YTZOq2fk]http://youtu.be/ye4YTZOq2fk[/video]
This biography is about Joseph Merrick, who was a young man that suffered major physical deformities during his life (he was born in 1862 and died in 1890). Joseph had very few joyful moments in his short and extremely difficult life, and yet it's been said by those who were close to him that he had a beautiful soul and treated everyone he knew with utmost dignity and respect.
For me the most important aspect of Joseph's life was that he was a devout Christian (due in large part because of the strong Christian faith of his mother). Psalm 23 was his favorite part of the Bible, which he would often recite out loud before going to sleep.
I highly recommend this book, as well as the 1980 movie "The Elephant Man" starring John Hurt (as Merrick) and Anthony Hopkins (as Merrick's doctor). This movie is one of my all-time favorites (although there are a small hand full of inaccuracies in it - for example in the movie Merrick is called John, but his real name was Joseph). The majority of the film is true to Joseph Merrick's life story.
Here is a trailer for the movie for those of you who may not have seen the film yet.
[video=youtube_share;ye4YTZOq2fk]http://youtu.be/ye4YTZOq2fk[/video]