A fire at a strip mall in Golden, Colorado circa 1982
“February 11, ten a.m. A Trailways bus turned over in the icy fog at Dead Man’s Curve. Forty-five people had been hurt; some were out of the bus and wandering around in the nagging cold, maybe to get lost and go, in shocky unreality, over the bank and into the gully. These are the nightmare runs, the scenes always handled more or less badly. They can never be trained for because there are too many variables controlling the situation. There’s the immediate reality—night, darkness, fog, ice storm. If you light up the bus, people will be lost outside. Enough rescuers? Hardly ever, and later, too many, and then, who’s chief? Terrain? Is the bus hanging over the edge? Ours was. That meant that while people were dying, time had to be taken to stabilize the environment in which they were dying. Triage? All our instincts were to get in and start working. That’s what we did, three of us, initially, heroically, mistakenly, going for what looked like the most severely injured. The urge, of course, is to do something.“
This is one of the patches I wore when I was “On the Run.”
If you’re a Joanne Greenberg fan, this is a must-see event. Get your copy signed, and get your questions answered. For thirteen years, Joanne Greenberg was a wife, mother, housekeeper, teacher, and world-class author—all the while driving around on some of the world’s most treacherous roads and rescuing people. This book tells that story beautifully. Obtain a copy, read it, and have it signed on August 10th at 1:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, located at 970 S. Colorado Blvd. Denver. Here is a link to this event on Colorado Community Media. Or on UpcomingEvents.com.
“In 1980, Rafael Osheroff, a nephrologist and father of three, sued Chestnut Lodge for negligence. In his complaint, Osheroff claimed that “the staff failed to prescribe drugs and instead treated him according to the psychodynamic and social model.”[13] The lawsuit was settled in 1987 by an agreement between the two parties.[14][15]” (Courtesy Wikipedia).
An American tragedy and fodder for generations of horror movies, America performed over 5000 lobotomies by 1950 (photo: https://rayosheroff.org/)
Here is Joanne Greenberg’s response:
An article which appeared in ‘The Psychiatric Times’ May 16, 2025, mentions the Osheroff vs. Chestnut Lodge law case which purportedly was the beginning of a plea for evidence-based psychoanalysis. Osheroff, who was suffering from depression, came to Chestnut Lodge – a mental hospital employing psychotherapy, but not psychoanalysis as treatment – which used sleep medication, dance and occupational therapy, hydrotherapy, but no psychoactive medications. Osheroff nonetheless demanded such drugs.
I was at Chestnut Lodge from 1948 until 1951 and was successfully treated there. Osheroff declared that my book, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, published in 1964, had been his reason for seeking help from the hospital. I’m unhappy with this ascription. The man was a medical doctor. His Advisor was a pharmaco-psychiatrist. They both knew going in that the hospital used no psychotropic medications, yet Osheroff demanded them. This is the equivalent of going to a gourmet Chinese restaurant and demanding a burger and fries, then continuing this demand after they explain, and then suing the restaurant for not providing them. His lawsuit and one other caused the Lodge to have to close, denying non-drug treatment to those in extreme states
He defended his behavior by claiming his power struggle was not egotism but rather a call for evidence-based therapy. Almost all the patients who were there in my time had already been challenged by previous drug therapies, electric and chemical shock, and even lobotomies. Such evidence-based studies would have been impossible under those circumstances.
Suzanne Macaulay is an art historian, folklorist, and social and behavioral scientist specializing in the customs, habits, and differences among cultures and social groups. She shares her residence between Colorado and New Zealand. Her book, Stitching Rites, is the first comprehensive academic treatment of Spanish colonial colcha embroidery and Hispanic art revitalization movements. Suzanne recently interviewed Joanne Greenberg about On the Run. The interview is featured in the Rocky Mountain Reader.
“Panic. Any gear—no gear will work now. Eighty-five, ninety. … Steering takes all the attention, moving between cars, horn letting people know that the rig is in trouble. … women and children in the back of the rig are screaming. … At one-ten on such a curve … physics declares itself in the name of the law. The semi-trailer, tons and tons, yards long and with eighteen heavy wheels, rises, goes airborne, flies, flies above the cars passing under it and the whole of it begins to turn over in the air….” ~From the book’s prologue.
This isn’t the exact rig we manhandled, but it’s close.
(Photo) Shaun Ryan
“When I asked Greenberg why she had chosen to write On the Run, she said, “I think you need at least ten years after a big event to write about it. I never thought of doing writing that wasn’t fiction. Then I thought well, enough time has passed. And I had kept notes [both fire rescue logs, and also personal notes].” The immediate catalyst had been an invitation to the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Genesee Fire Department, which is part of the fire and rescue network in Joanne’s area of Colorado. She couldn’t attend, but a reunion was arranged between her and Lori Poland, who had been kidnapped at age three in a nationally publicized crime. Greenberg was one of the main rescuers to recover Lori from the bottom of an outdoor toilet in a deserted park where she had been abandoned by her kidnapper. During that ordeal and the trip to the ER in Denver, Lori and Joanne had strongly bonded, but hadn’t seen each other for over 30 years.” ~From the Rocky Mountain Reader interview.
“Empathy and compassion toward victims is on every page of On the Run—similar to how those attitudes and behaviors on behalf of others saved the protagonist in Greenberg’s most famous book, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, the fictionalized version of her recovery from mental illness as a young woman. These themes manifest in her insistence on positioning herself in the ambulance so that she could see “eye-to-eye” with a victim not only to monitor vitals but to also offer a compassionate lifeline to someone who was frightened, in pain and suffering physically and emotionally. In refuting an esteemed doctor’s dismissal of a psychotic victim as one who will never recover, Greenberg counters by referring to her own past experience of mental illness. She credits her illness and recovery as fundamental to how she moves through this world—how she behaves, her attitude toward others and the truth in her writing.” ~From the Interview
“Advocacy for victims is apparent throughout the book. A surprise to some may be the extent of Greenberg’s support for deaf and blind people confined to and marginalized within mental institutions worldwide. Wherever she goes, for example to Sweden, she seeks out deaf people institutionalized in various mental hospitals. Her campaign is to create awareness of the deaf and their isolated loneliness, to canvas resources and identify methods of communication (signing is high on her list), uncover possible misdiagnoses, encourage surveys of former residents about the positive and negative aspects of their experience and engage local organizations supporting the deaf. Her persistent efforts in this area of advocacy earned her an honorary degree from Gallaudet, the University of the Deaf, in Washington D.C.” ~ From the Interview
When Albert Greenberg started out as Colorado’s first rehabilitation counselor for the Deaf, he had as two of his early clients, Johnnie Calderone and Saundra Scott. They forged a relationship beyond the department, and Johnnie worked with Albert as he struggled to learn American Sign Language. Albert, in turn, brought what he was learning home to Joanne. Johnnie and Saundra were married by Reverend DeMeree at Denver Temple Baptist Church in 1966, and Albert and Joanne were in attendance. With the Greenbergs’ help, among numerous others, Johnnie developed an engineering career, making many contributions to the cartography and printing industries. The couple raised three successful boys. The couple’s story is told in the new memoir, My Quiet Fight for Home.
Johnnie was born almost profoundly deaf and suffered a fall in childhood that kept him hospitalized during the time that children his age should be learning essential communication. He started first grade at age ten and enrolled at Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in Colorado Springs one year later. At CSDB, mentored by McCay Vernon, Johnnie excelled in sports and athletics, developed an interest in science and mathematics, and honed his skills as an artist. My Quiet Fight for Home is told in first person and reads like a conversation with a friend.
Johnnie and Saundra have both read many of Joanne Greenberg’s books and recently finished On the Run. Saundra wrote this review .
“This woman loved life around her, as it shows in this book! It is a true story, “On the Run.” A mother, a writer, a volunteer firefighter, an EMT, and much more, she goes out in the middle of the night and comes home to her husband and her boys. You need to read this real-life memoir about what she loves to do. What an amazing book!“
Gülfem Aşlakcı is currently working on her master’s thesis in the field of Comparative Literature. The topic of her thesis is as follows: This study compares the influences of characters in Peyami Safa’s novel “Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu” and Joanne Greenberg’s “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” through a psychoanalytic lens, grounded in the authors’ own life stories. By examining the thoughts, attitudes, and reactions of the characters to the societal conditions they experienced, the study aims to uncover the similarities and differences between them. The findings reveal that despite differences in their economic, social, and cultural contexts, the characters share more commonalities than expected.
Gülfem Aşlakcı holds Turkish and English versions of Rose Garden
Joanne was so impressed that Rose Garden was the basis of a Master’s thesis halfway around the globe that she sent Gülfem copies of In This Sign and Appearances. Gülfem responded:
“I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for the books and the beautiful letter you wrote on September 8th—coincidentally, my birthday! Although both the letter and the books only reached me today, on October 7th, it feels like a special connection, knowing you wrote it on such a meaningful day for me. Your kindness and thoughtfulness mean the world to me. As I continue my work on the thesis, I will be more than happy to share the English translation with you once it is presented. I plan to send you the sections that relate to your work, as well as the conclusions I’ve reached. I have also been considering turning this research into a book one day, and your inspiration has been a significant part of that thought process. Thank you again for your invaluable support, and I truly hope we will have the chance to meet in person someday.”
Joanne Greenberg’s letter to Gülfem Aşlakcı.
Update: July 15—Congratulations to Gülfem, whose thesis is finished, and she has received her degree. Although her actual dissertation is 197 pages long, an independent article based on her complete thesis was published in Modern Türklük Araştırmaları Dergisi (Journal of Modern Turkish Studies). Here is the website where the article can be accessed by registering: http://mtad.humanity.ankara.edu.tr Ms. Aşlakcı has kindly translated the 19-page article into English for us, and you can view it here. Joanne Greenberg has been very pleased with her friendship with Gülfem, loved the article, and is so happy to see a new generation moving forward with her work.
Anna-Sara sent in this moving review of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, a book that still changes lives sixty-odd years after its initial publication. Over the years, we have heard similar comments from the many readers whose journeys were aided by this classic mental health novel.
“Hello,I read your book. I never promised you a rose garden for the first time when I was 12 or 13. It shook something deep in me, changed something deep in my core. Since then, I have re-read it at least 5 times, and for every new re-reading, I see something new. I recognize a different angle or a new perspective I never saw before. I want to write this to you so you know that your book can change people. Because I realized I was not alone, not alone in fighting Psychosis and coming out, not as a shipwreck and medicated, but as a thinking human being living in the world. The hunger for learning and the colours the world has given me is something I recognize from your book. I’m deeply grateful for the chance I got to read your book and recognize that I’m not alone in fighting and living. Your book is my favourite, for the reasons above and the warmth it gives. For me, it’s a symbol of hope. And I want to thank you for writing it because the written word is what brings people together over oceans. With love over the Atlantic, Anna-Sara.”
The original collectors’ item
Indeed, a book that still changes lives, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, remains one of the most-read psychological novels. Thanks to Penguin Books, a whole new generation can receive the healing insights it offers readers, and we will continue to receive their words of gratitude.
It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of the musician-comedian Kinky Friedman. I appreciate his riotous take on anti-Semitism. According to The Forward, he died June 26th at the age of 79.
Another song, “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” recounts how a barroom antisemite is trounced by a Jewish cowboy. The song would delight fans like Joanne Greenberg, author of the 1963 novel The King’s Persons about the medieval massacre of the Jewish population of York, the United Kingdom.
It’s very difficult to make racism or anti-Semitism funny. Kinky Friedman managed to do that, in so doing helped to bring awareness of the stupidity of racism to those who might not have gotten that message. He will be missed.
During her time in Fire-Rescue, Joanne and her team saved a young child. One of the stories in On the Run chronicles the girl’s gut-wrenching, disturbing, yet inspiring story in detail. The little girl’s name is Lori Poland.
Foothills Fire-Rescue recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and both Joanne and Lori attended. Of course, Lori is a full-grown woman now and an author as well. The two have rekindled a friendship. Lori’s book, I Live Here: learning to heal through embracing your own story, is available here.
If every story feels like a lie, you have a great book. I love all of Joanne Greenberg’s fiction, but I wasn’t sure how she’d do with a memoir. I thought On the Run would be one of those boring memoirs about a woman trying to work in a “man’s world.” It turned out to be a page-turner where every story feels like it can’t be true. Yet, it is. Nothing boring about this memoir at all. It’s like watching an action-adventure pic in text form. I loved it, and I recommend it to anybody looking for a history lesson, a story about a woman putting in 110% to get the respect of the men she worked with, and above all, an adventure story that will inspire you like a Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movie from the ’70s.
If you need a caption for this, you’re either too young or too old. (Photo YouTube)
Why would someone climb out of a warm bed to rescue a neighbor? Because it needs to be done. What is it like to fight a fire in a 10-deg blizzard at 3 in the morning? Greenberg’s description of this feels real and honest but without a lot of handwringing. At the same time, she spells out the lessons she learned from that experience. Or what happens to a semi-tractor trailer going down a 12% grade for 25 miles when the brakes fail? She explains this inside-trucking story to non-truck drivers in a language we can understand without talking down to us.
A fire at a strip mall in Golden, Colorado circa 1982
I also really appreciated the lack of explanations for the tech jargon. As a reader, I don’t need to know how a two-and-one-half-inch hose differs from some other hose. I don’t need to understand the details of pumping from the tanker or what a turnout is. The stories are not encumbered by these terms and probably would not be enhanced by mundane explanations. The result is the author gives us the opportunity to look up those questions if we absolutely need those answers. It’s a sign of respect for the reader.
Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Photo wallofcelebrities.com.)
I compare I Never Promised You a Rose Garden to Ken Keysey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I first read them both as a troubled teen in juvenile hall back in the early ’70s. In both books, I saw myself, and both helped me realize that I was on the wrong path. So, I guess you could say that I Never Promised You a Rose Garden helped me become the person I am today. Maybe that’s not saying much 🤪. Both books are true classics and have been used as a teaching tool in psych classes worldwide. Over the years, I have read many of Ms. Greenberg’s other books. I give Rose Garden four stars, but I have thoroughly enjoyed everything else I’ve read. My wife and I both read On The Run, and I promise you’ll love it whether you’re interested in history, action-adventure, or books about the glass ceiling.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (Photo Barnes and Noble.)
As with Kesey, Greenberg is no stranger to antihero characters. Even though I Never Promised You a Rose Garden was life-changing for me, my favorite of hers is The Far Side of Victory. In this book, you never really know who’s the bad guy and who isn’t. Did Helen kill herself to punish Eric? Was Eric a murderer or just a man who made a mistake? Did they fall in love? Did he give her a family to make up for the one he took from her? And the best part is Greenberg never answers any of these questions. You need to figure it out for yourself.
Then there’s Rites of Passage. One of Ms. Greenberg’s short stories in which a delusional farmer uses the affection of a young boy as a weapon to commit a murder. It’s a case study in manipulation and betrayal. There’s something pleasingly unwholesome about most of her characters. Even troubled teenagers can learn something from her writing.
