The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption

( 4 )

All Available Formats + Editions

——

$15.36

NOOK Book

——

$15.36

The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption (eBook) Pub. Date: 4/29/2009 Publisher: Da Capo Press
$0.66

$12.95

Paperback

$0.66

$12.95

The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption Pub. Date: 5/6/2008 Publisher: Union Square Press

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

Advertising

Overview

The story, first told by Barbara Raymond in a magazine article that inspired a 60 Minutes feature, was shocking. Georgia Tann, nationally lauded for arranging adoptions out of her children’s home in Memphis, Tennessee, was actually a baby seller who terrorized poor, often unwed mothers by stealing their children and selling them to wealthy clients like actors Joan Crawford and Dick Powell. Parents would keep toddlers indoors, and the mother superior of a local orphanage hid babies in attics, but, protected by political boss Ed Crump, Tann sold over 5,000 children, and did much worse. So many died through neglect that Memphis’s infant mortality rate soared to the highest in the country. Tann abused some of her charges, and placed others with pedophiles. During her twenty-six years of operation from 1924 to 1950, Tann also virtually invented modern American adoption, popularizing it, commercializing it, and corrupting it with secrecy. To cover her crimes, Tann falsified adoptees’ birth certificates, sealing their true ones and issuing new ones that portrayed adoptive parents as birth parents. This practice was approved by legislators across the country who believed it would spare adoptees the onus of illegitimacy.
An adoptive mother and award-winning journalist who interviewed hundreds of Georgia Tann victims, Barbara Raymond has written a riveting account of a little known and dark chapter in American history. Its themes continue to reverberate, with most states still denying adult adoptees their original birth certificates and harboring other remnants of Tann’s corrupt practices.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

An episode in American adoption history little remembered by the public at large, the crimes of nationally lauded Memphis orphanage director Georgia Tann are skillfully and passionately recounted by freelance writer Raymond, herself an adoptive mom. The portrait of Tann that emerges is that of a domineering, indefatigable figure with an insane commitment to ends-justify-the-means logic who oversaw three decades of baby stealing, baby selling and unprecedented neglect. Meanwhile, she did more to popularize, commercialize and influence adoption in America than anyone before her. Tann operated carte blanche under corrupt mayor Edward Hull Crump from the 1920s to the '50s, employing a nefarious network of judges, attorneys, social workers and politicos, whom she sometimes bribed with "free" babies; her clients included the rich, the famous and the entirely unfit (who more than occasionally returned their disappointing children for a refund). "Spotters" located babies and young children ripe for abduction-from women too uneducated or exhausted to fight back-and Tann made standard practice of altering birth certificates and secreting away adoption records to attract buyers and cover her tracks-self-serving moves that have become standard practice in modern adoption. A riveting array of interviews with Tann's former charges reveals adults still struggling with their adoption ordeal and childhood memories stacked with sexual abuse, torture and confusion. Raymond's dogged investigation makes a strong case for "ridding adoptions of lies and secrets," warning that "[u]ntil we do, [Tann] and her imitators will continue to corrupt adoption." A rigorous, fascinating, page-turning tale, thisimportant book is not for the timorous. (May)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781402758638
Publisher: Union Square Press
Publication date: 5/6/2008
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 353,451
Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.10 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Barbara Raymond has written extensively for Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, Redbook, McCall’s, Parents, Reader’s Digest, Working Mother, Writer’s Digest, and USA Today. She contributed to The Handbook of Magazine Article Writing (Writer’s Digest Books), and was an author of a Good Housekeeping Child Care section that won the National Magazine Award for Public Service. She has been nominated for a National Magazine Award in Reporting and received two awards for feature writing from Women in Communications.

Prologue     vii
Georgia's World
Georgia's Home     1
Georgia's Disappearance     5
Billy     15
The Plague     21
Mollie     31
Georgia's Youth     37
Georgia's Memphis     59
The Little Wanderers     65
Georgia's Crimes
Georgia's Methods     89
Georgia's Adults     127
Georgia's Children     145
Georgia's Secrets
Georgia's Lies     201
The Fallout     219
The Beginning of the End     227
Epilogue     243
Notes     253
Sources     289
Acknowledgments     297
Index     301

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4

( 4 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(1)

4 Star

(2)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

Anonymous

Posted July 14, 2008

Excellent read!!!

As an adoption social worker, I found this book both disturbing and educational. It suprises me that the illegal activity of one woman could have such a profound effect on how adoption is facilitated today. This book proves that open adoption is what is best for all people affected by adoption. This is must read for all families that are built by adoption and those of us who are commited to ensuring that adoption is never corrupted again.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted January 13, 2011

No text was provided for this review.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble