Poems from the asylum
(Book - Regular Print)

"Due to some strange or dark themes, the nonfiction poetry anthology, Poems from the Asylum, is intended for a MATURE reading audience"--Publisher's Web site

A totally unique anthology of harrowing and insightful poems written by Martha Hedwig Nasch, patient-inmate #20864 at the St. Peter State Hospital for the insane (St. Peter, Minnesota), that goes beyond the haunted hospital walls and shines a light on medical and mental health practices of the 1920s in the United States ... After noticing something strange from a secret medical procedure in 1927, St. Paul, Minnesota, Martha Nasch's doctor claimed she just had a "case of nerves." With a signature from her adulterous husband, Martha was committed against her will to the asylum. She spent nearly seven years in the Minnesota hospital during the Great Depression and tried to escape twice. Martha's poems written from behind bars include shocking eyewitness accounts of patient mistreatment and a long-suffering adoration for her only child, not being raised alone by her deceiving spouse. When not a soul believed Martha's story, she sought an explanation for her mysterious condition that led her to a spiritual answer for the mystifying curse. Would her finding make her a metaphysical guru of the Breatharian lifestyle, or would she become the laughingstock of her Depression-era family? -- Adapted from publisher's description