Documents about feral children online at FeralChildren.com
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These texts about feral children are all available for you to view online here. I am very grateful to the various copyright holders for their permission to place these works here.
Some of these documents are extracts, rather than the full work. However, the entire text of Itard's Rapport and Mémoire about Victor of Aveyron are here. Essays, journal articles and book reviews are also reproduced in full.
Copyright
If you wish to use any of the texts for any other purpose, then please send me email and I will pass on your request to the author, since most of these works are still in copyright, and may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.
Languages
Some of the works in languages other than English are general essays or aticles on the subject of feral children, and are placed here for the convenience of non-English speakers. If a language in the following list is underlined, then there is some content on this site in that language.
Feral children are also known as enfants sauvages (Français) , enfants loups (Français) , wolfskind (Deutsch) , wilden Kinder (Deutsch) , wilde Kinder (Deutsch) , Kinder der Wildnis (Deutsch) , vargbarn (Svenska) , vilda barn (Svenska) , ville barn (Norsk) , bambini selvaggi (Italiano) , bambini-lupo (Italiano) , ragazzi selvaggi (Italiano) , niños salvajes (Español) , niños selváticos (Español) , homo ferus (Lingua latina) , homo sylvestris (Lingua latina) , förvildade barn (Dansk) , crianças selvagens (Português) , farkasgyerekek (Magyar) , -волки (Русский) , dzieciach-wilkach (Polski) , wilde kinderen (Nederlands) , wolvenkinderen (Nederlands) , villilapset (Suomi) , susilapset (Suomi) , susilapsi (Suomi) .
Authors' resumé: Les auteurs, après bien d'autres, re-interrogent l'oeuvre pédagogique entreprise par Jean Itard auprès de l'enfant sauvage de l'Aveyron. L'opportunité qui fut offerte à ce médecin constitue un événement resté unique dans l'histoire des sciences. L'extrême fécondité de ce travail est attestée par ses prolongements toujours en honneur dans divers courants de la psychologie scientifique et de la pédagogie. Il ne s'agit plus maintenant de juger d'un succès ou d'un échec mais d'en reconsidérer les enseignements à la lumière de concepts scientifiques qui n'avaient pas cours il y a plus de deux siècles.
Perea, François & Jean Morenon, 1 2005, Nervure - Journal de psychiatrie
XVII no. 9
Child featured: Victor
My thanks to Tomas Pettersson for permission to reproduce his essay (this is in Swedish).
Pettersson, Tomas, 2003
In the final chapter of his PhD thesis, Williams examines the historical accounts for any evidence that children have ever truly been nurtured by animals.
Williams, Paul, 2003
Steeves refers to our perceptions of feral children and Bigfoot to discuss exactly what it is to be human.
Steeves, Peter, 2003
Schneider, Nadine, 2003, Der Einsame Schütze
Pollitt, Geoff, 2003, Serendip
A thorough review of virtually every known case. An excellent reference work.
Blumenthal, P J, 2003
ISBN: 3216306321
Child featured: Kaspar Hauser
Wild Peter
M A Memmie LeBlanc
Victor
Kamala
Ramu
John Ssebunya
Anna
Isabelle
One of the characters finds a book about The Green Children and becomes obsessed with their mysterious story.
Youmans, Marly, 3 2 2003, Harvest Books
ISBN: 0156027143
Child featured: The Green Children of Woolpit
Candland, Douglas, 2003, FeralChildren.com
Child featured: CauCau
Includes the paper The Linguistic Development of Genie by Curtiss, Fromkin et al.
Foley, Claire & Lust, Barbara (eds), 26 11 2003, Blackwell
ISBN: 0631232559
Child featured: Genie
Childhood Experience and the Expression of Genetic Potential: What Childhood Neglect Tells Us About Nature and Nurture
Studies of childhood abuse and neglect have important lessons for considerations of nature and nurture.
Perry, Dr Bruce D, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002, Brain and Mind
vol 3 (2002) page 79-100
The Wild Child, who lives through much of childhood without exposure to language or culture, is exceedingly rare. I examine three of the most famous and most well authenticated cases: Helen Keller, who was isolated from eighteen months until her seventh year; 'Victor', the wild boy of the forest near Aveyron, whom Itard studied; and 'Genie,' who was isolated from language from age two until the middle of her thirteenth year. Attention is paid both to the development of these individuals and to the conduct and misconceptions of those who examined and trained them. Various morals are drawn, which might also have application to research on non-human primates.
Leiber, Justin, 2002, Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior
27:2 (2002) page 325-343
This collection considers the borders between humans and their imagined others: animals, women, native subjects, machines. It examines border creatures (hermaphrodites, wildmen, and cyborgs) and border practices (science, surveying, and pornography). Includes a chapter by Michael Newton examining whether Wild Peter had a soul.
Fudge, Erica (ed) & Gilbert, Ruth (ed) & Wiseman, Susan (ed), 1 6 2002, Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 0333973844
Child featured: Wild Peter
du Plessis, Susan, 2002
Brief details of historical cases plus extensive chapters on Peter, Victor, Kamala and Amala, Memmie Leblanc and Kaspar Hauser
Newton, Michael, 13 2 2002, Faber and Faber
ISBN: 0571201393
Child featured: Ivan Mishukov
Wild Peter
Victor
M A Memmie LeBlanc
Kaspar Hauser
John Ssebunya
Genie
L'enfant sauvage, Itinéraire d'une figure à travers les témoignages, les discours du mythe, des sciences, de la fiction et de la spéculation
Strivay, Lucienne, Arras, 2002, Les Cahiers Robinson
no 12 page 7-28
Child featured: Wolf-boy of Hesse
Betty Topper
Ivan Mishukov
Wolf-boy of Wetterau
Wild Peter
M A Memmie LeBlanc
Yousef, Nancy, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, Jounal of the History of Ideas
62:2 (2001) page 245-263
Child featured: Victor
Condillac's Essay on the Origin of Human Knowledge, first published in French in 1746 and offered here in a new translation.
de Condillac, Etienne Bonnot; Aarsleff, Hans (ed), 9 2001, Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521585767
Child featured: Joseph
Iversen, Gunnar, 2000, Scandinavica
vol 39, no 1 page 7-23
Jorge Gonçalves & Maria Alexandra Peixoto, 2000
Child featured: Victor
Piergiacomo Pagano, 9 2000, Naturalmente
vol 13, nos 3 and 4
McLeish, Simon, 29 6 1999
Although fiction, this book does examine in depth the moral problems that such children raise when they re-enter human societies.
Paton Walsh, Jill, 1 1998, Black Swan
ISBN: 0552997803
A developmental theory of language and the neural systems that lead to and subserve linguistic capabilities.
Locke, John L, 1997, Brain and Language
vol 58 page 265-326
Child featured: Genie
Douthwaite, Dr Julia V, Johns Hopkins University Press, 5 1997, Eighteenth-Century Life
vol 21, no 2 page 176-202
Denise, Jean-Paul, Châlons-en-Champagne, 1996, Champagne Généalogie
no 77
Child featured: M A Memmie LeBlanc
Jones, Dr Peter E, Elsevier, 7 1995, Language and Communication
vol 15, no 3 page 261-80
Child featured: Genie
Douthwaite, Dr Julia V, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, Eighteenth-Century Studies
vol 28, no 2 page 163-192
Child featured: M A Memmie LeBlanc
Carey, John, 1987, Faber and Faber
page 28-30
ISBN: 0380729687
Child featured: The Green Children of Woolpit
Never published. Presented at the 80th Annual American Psychological Association Convention, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1-6 September 1972, in a symposium, "Extreme Psychological Deprivation: The Case of Genie". Chairman Rigler, David.
Shurley, Jay T & Natani, Kirmach, 1 9 1972, n/a
Child featured: Genie
Extensive coverage of Kamala and Amala based on Singh's own diaries, details of many historical cases quoting primary sources, and an 1833 translation of Feuerbach's Kaspar Hauser.
Singh, Reverend J A L & Zingg, Robert M, 1942, Harper
ISBN: 0208005994
Kellogg, W, 1931, American Journal of Psychology
vol 43 page 508-509
Child featured: Kamala
Stacpoole, H de Vere, 1908, IndyPublish.com
ISBN: 1404300392
Cronica S. Petri Efordensis moderna
Holder-Egger, Oswald, Hannover, Leipzig, 1899, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum
page 326
Child featured: Wolf-boy of Hesse
A non-fiction article on children raised by wolves.
Stockwell, George Archie, 1 1898, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine
Jan 1898 page 117-124
Keightley, Thomas, London, 1870, H. G. Bohn
page 281-283
ISBN: 0838302815
Child featured: The Green Children of Woolpit
Newburgh, William & Stevenson, J (trans), London, 1861, Seeleys
vol 4, 11, ch 27
Child featured: The Green Children of Woolpit
Reprinted in various places at various times, most recently in New Delhi in 1995.
Sleeman, Sir William Henry, London, 1858, Richard Bentley
ISBN: B0007BRJO2
Child featured: Bankipur wolf boy
First Lucknow wolf boy
Second Sultanpur wolf boy
First Sultanpur wolf boy
Hasunpur wolf boy
Chupra wolf boy
I was now, by Jackson's account, nearly fourteen years old. During fourteen years but one vessel had been seen by us. It might be fourteen more, or double that time might elapse, before I should again fall in with any of my fellow-creatures. As these thoughts saddened me, I felt how much I would nave sacrificed if Jackson had remained alive, were it only for his company; I would have forgiven him anything. I even then felt as if, in the murderer of my father, I had lost a friend.
Marryat, Frederick, 1848, Paperbackshop.co.uk
ISBN: 1846375304
Caspar Hauser. An account of an individual kept in a dungeon, separated from all communication with the world, from early childhood to about the age of seventeen
Translated from the German.
Feuerbach, Anselm Ritter von, London, 1833, Simpkin and Marshall
Child featured: Kaspar Hauser
Mémoires de Constant, premier valet de chambre de l'empereur, sur la vie privée de Napoléon, sa famille, et sa cour
Wairy, Louis Constant, Paris, 1830, Cosson
vol 3 page pp 48-51
Child featured: Victor
Eclaircissement sur la fille sauvage dont il est parlé dans 'L'Epitre II sur l'Homme'
Racine, Louis, Paris, 1808
page 575-582
Child featured: M A Memmie LeBlanc
Itard, Jean M, Paris, 1806
Child featured: Victor
Foss, Matthias, 1802
Child featured: Jostedalsrypa
Itard, Jean M, London, 1802, Richard Phillips
Child featured: Victor
Itard, Jean M, Paris, 1801
Child featured: Victor
A dramatised version of Ducray-Duminil's book of the same name.
Pixérécourt, René Charles Guilbert de, Paris, 1798
The book from which Victor got his name. A child is found in the forest.
Ducray-Duminil, François Guillaume, Paris, 127 1797
Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis
Linné, Carl von (Carl Linnaeus, Caroli Linneai, Carl von Linné, Charles Linnaeus), Leipzig, 1788
bk 1 page 21
ISBN: B0007JBMBU
Child featured: Joseph
Translation into English of Buffon's Histoire Naturelle
Smellie, William (trans), Edinburgh, 1781, W Strahan and T Cadell
vol 3, section IX page 171-172
Leroy, Julien David, Paris, 1774
ISBN: 2849150053
Child featured: Girl of Issaux
An Account of a Savage Girl [M. A. Memmie LeBlanc] caught wild in the woods of Champagne. With a preface (containing additional information) by Lord Monboddo
A translation of Histoire d'une Jeune Fille Sauvage… by La Condamine, which you can read online in full in French.
La Condamine, Charles-Marie; Robertson (trans), Glasgow, 1768, A Kincaid & J Bell
Child featured: M A Memmie LeBlanc
Published under the pseudonym Madame Hecquet but in fact by Charles La Condamine. The later introduction and additions to the English version are also useful.
Hecquet, Mme, 1755
Child featured: M A Memmie LeBlanc
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Paris, 1754
page 94-96
ISBN: 2253067245
Child featured: Wolf-boy of Hesse
Rousseau, Jean Baptiste; Racine (ed), Paris, 1747
page 28-29
Child featured: M A Memmie LeBlanc
Condillac, Etienne de (Etienne Bonnot de Mably de Condillac), Amsterdam, 1746
bk 1 pt 1 ch 2 page 202-205
Child featured: Joseph
An Enquiry how the Wild Youth, lately taken in the Woods near Hanover (and now brought over to England) could be there left and by what creature he could be suckled, nursed, etc.
A work of pure speculation about how Wild Peter might have survived in the wild.
unknown, London, 1726, unknown
Child featured: Wild Peter
The full title is as good a description as any: The history of Poland in several letters to persons of quality, giving an account of the antient and present state of that kingdom, historical, geographical, physical, political and ecclesiastical ... : with sculptures, and a new map after the best geographers : with several letters relating to physick.
Connor, Bernard (O'Connor), London, 1698, Dan. Brown & A. Roper
page 342ff
Child featured: Joseph
Ross tries to defend traditional beliefs against the new scientific discoveries of his age.
Ross, Alexander, London, 1652, Tho. Newcomb (printer)
bk 2, ch 4 page 111-116
Two Treatises. In the One of Which, the Nature of Bodies; in the Other, the Nature of Mans Soule; is Looked Into: in Way of Discovery, of the Immortality of Reasonable Soules
Digby presents a mechanistic account of the nature and motion of bodies, dealing with such issues as refraction and the movement of the heart.
Digby, Sir Kenelm (Kenelme Digbie), Paris, 1644, G. Blaizot (printer)
page 247-248
Child featured: Jean de Liège
An "Omnium Gatherum": the author's personal collection of fact and legend from classical and contemporary literature. Includes a plausible story of a feral child, but also a section on monsters born to women who have consorted with beasts.
Guyon, Louis, Dolois (sieur de la Nauche), Lyon, 1613, Antoine Chard (printer)
17th edn, vol 1, bk 2, ch 34
Child featured: Ardenne wolf boy
Camerarius, Philipus (Philip), Frankfurt, 1609, P. Kopffij (printer)
pt 1 page 343ff
Child featured: Bamberg boy
The Wolf-Boy of Hesse of 1341
Dilich, Wilhelm, Frankfurt, 1608, Johan Carl Unckel
II page 187
Child featured: 2nd Wolf-boy of Hesse
Reprinted in Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, 1857 London, no. 66, pg. 118-120
Ralph of Coggeshall, 1200
Child featured: The Green Children of Woolpit
