March 30, 2009 issue
‘Rosanna’ reconsidered
What’s fact, what’s fiction in classic Amish story?
By Heidi Martin For Mennonite Weekly ReviewSTRASBURG, Pa. — In 1940, at the age of 68, Joseph W. Yoder published the story of his orphaned Irish mother raised by an Amish widow.
Although misclassified as nonfiction, Rosanna of the Amish by Joseph W. Yoder accurately portrays Amish culture.
The book, Rosanna of the Amish, became a classic, selling more than 400,000 copies over seven decades.
Intent on correcting misconceptions of Amish life and culture, Yoder claimed the book was based on fact.
Today, Yoder’s story is under scrutiny, with one overarching question: Is Rosanna of the Amish actually fiction?
Recent research shows a lot of it is.
On March 10, Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society invited Julia Spicher Kasdorf, S. Duane Kauffman and Joshua Brown for a panel discussion on “Fact and Fiction: Reconsidering Rosanna of the Amish” at Strasburg Mennonite Church.
Kasdorf, a poet and Penn State University professor, is the author of the biography Fixing Tradition: Joseph W. Yoder, Amish American published in 2002. She also restored and annotated Yoder’s story, published by Herald Press in 2008 as Rosanna of the Amish: The Restored Text.
Brown, a Pennsylvania German linguist, collaborated with Kasdorf on this project.
Kauffman, a historian and genealogist, wrote “Rosanna of the Amish: Fact or Fiction?” in the July 2008 issue of Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, a quarterly magazine of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society.
Kauffman knew Yoder as a child and has memories of sitting in his home in Huntingdon.
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