Shall I Say a Kiss? · the Courtship Letters of a Deaf Couple, 1936-1938

Upon the death of his father Morris at age 82, Lennard Davis found among his effects a trove of letters, kept in careful chronological order, that dated from 1936. The letters ended in 1938, when Eva Weintrobe came to America to marry Morris, and they provide the core of Shall I Say A Kiss?, their courtship by correspondence.Shall I Say A Kiss? opens a window into the lives of two working-class, Jewish, British, Deaf people in the 1930s, by offering an account of their "lived" experience during the tumultuous times just prior to World War II. Mostly written by Eva, the letters focus further as a record of the opinions of a young, working-class, Deaf woman about to embark upon marriage and life in a new country. The challenges she faced, including de facto barriers for both deaf and Jewish immigrants, and the prospect of uniting with a man she knew mostly through his letters alone, make for a compelling and emotional trip through her life. Shall I Say A Kiss? serves as a singular social document and also as an engaging and often moving narrative that will win audiences among academics and romantics alike.