The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

What a book! It's harrowing. I don't want to believe it's real, but I know that it is. I don't know that any of these quotes will be helpful in a classroom setting, but I had to collect some of them. They just.. mostly defy reason.

But the girls were paid by piece-work, not salary, so the impact of using the pens made a huge difference financially. p173

His theory was this: the girls could not possibly have brought a lawsuit until they knew that the company was to blame. As the firm had actively conducted a campaign to mislead the girls, it should not be allowed to rely upon the delay, which it had caused, as a defense. p178

"James McDonald lost the services of his wife and will in the future be deprived of the comfort and aid of her society and will be compelled to expend large sums of money in an endeavor to treat and cure his wife." p179

its own vice-president had attended the girls' medical tests. p213

"My body means nothing but pain to me," Grace revealed, "and it might mean longer life or relief to the others, if science had it. It's all I have to give." p225

"My husband tries to be brave," she'd said of him once. "But it's harder on men than on women." p257

"I convinced her she wasn't; that she was going to get better. It is tact of a physician not to reveal a fatal prognosis." p268

It was certainly true that the local physicians, perhaps as a result of the isolation of the tiny town [Ottawa, IL], were not the most knowledgeable. p285

Just because these hoity-toity New York and Chicago folk were saying Ottawa girls had radium poisoning, it didn't make it true-- not in their eyes. p297

Ottawa was a close-knit and folksy town, but the girls soon realized that when it turned against you, it turned hard. "They weren't treated too nice," commented a relative of Marie with understatement. p297

"They shoot to kill when it comes to cattle thieves in Illinois, and fish and fowl are safeguarded by stringent game laws-- but womenfolk come cheap." p309

At a year old, Mary Jane weighed only ten pounds and had "match-thin arms and legs." p309

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