Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders
in Literature

From Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, written in 1893 about life in the early 1800s:

“She got a [job] as second chambermaid on a Cincinnati boat in the New Orleans trade. . . .  But now for two months she had had rheumatism in her arms, and was obliged to let the wash tub go.  So she resigned.”

“She’s kind of crippled in the arms and can’t work.”

From Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock, written 1931.

 “Madame Renaude says she could never milk her cows in the morning if she did not put rheumatism ointment on her hands at night.”

From John McFee, Rising from the Plains, referring to the 1910 era:

“Many [cowboys] were already stooped from chronic saddle-weariness . . . and spinal injuries that required a ‘hanging pole’ in the bunkhouse.  This was a horizontal bar from which the cowboys would hang by their hands for 5-10 minutes to relieve pressure on ruptured spinal disks . . . .”

From Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener, 1853:

“Nippers could never get his table to suit him.  He put chips under it, blocks of various sorts, bits of pasteboard, and at last went so far as to attempt an exquisite adjustment by final pieces of folded blotting paper.  But no invention would answer.  If, for the sake of easing his back, he brought the table lid at a sharp angle well up towards his chin, and wrote there like a man using the steep roof of a Dutch house for his desk — then he declared that it stopped the circulation in his arms.  If now he lowered the table to his waistbands, and stooped over it in writing, then there was a sore aching in his back.”

From V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas, published 1961 about life in Trinidad in the 1930’s:

“Owad said, ‘You know the labour that it is to plant rice.  Bending down, up to your knees in muddy water, sun blazing, day in day out.’

“ ‘The backache,’ the widow said, arching her back and putting her hand where she ached.  ‘You don’t have to tell me.  Just planting that one acre, and I feel like going to the hospital.’ ”

From Jung Chang, Wild Swans, 1991, about life in China:

“I preferred transplanting rice shoots.  This was considered a hard job because one had to bend so much.  Often at the end of the day, even the toughest men complained about not being able to stand up straight.”

From John Steinbeck, East of Eden, published in 1952 about life in the late 1800s:

“One day and Samuel strained his back lifting a bale of hay, and it hurt his feelings more than his back, and for he could not imagine a life in which [he] was not privileged to lift a bale of hay.  He felt insulted by his back, almost as he would have been if one of his children had been dishonest.

In King City, Dr. Tilson felt him over.  The Dr. grew more testy with his overworked years.

‘You sprained your back.’

‘That I did’ said Samuel.

‘And you drove all that way in to have me tell you that you sprained your back and charge you two dollars?’

‘Here’s your two dollars.’

‘And you want to know what to do about it?’

‘Sure I do.’

‘Don’t sprain it anymore.  Now take your money back.  You’re not a fool, Samuel, unless you’re getting childish.’

‘But it hurts.’

‘Of course it hurts.  How would you know it was strained if it didn’t?’