The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 2, Chapters 37-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Power”

Chapter 37 Summary

After a stumble which hurts her knee, Katherine Schaub discovers that she has a sarcoma in her leg and has to wear a metal brace indefinitely. She takes this news badly, and her mental health takes a turn for the worse, leading her to drink. The women become more resistant to their appointments, and refuse some of the treatments ordered by Ewing and Craver.

Irene Corby La Porte, who has worked with Grace during the war, is soon admitted to the hospital after Dr. Humphries finds a sarcoma in her pelvis. Martland soon writes about these sarcomas, which usually appear years after exposure to radium, and come on suddenly. On her deathbed on May 4, Irene files a claim against USRC, willing to settle. She dies June 16.

Chapter 38 Summary

One day, Radium Dial executives pay a visit to the studio where Catherine Wolfe is working. Mr. Reed summons Catherine to his office, where Radium Dial president and vice president Kelly and Fordyce are waiting. Mr. Reed tells Catherine that due to her limp, he must let her go, as it is causing “talk” around Ottawa.

Chapters 39-40 Summary

Katherine Schaub’s bone tumor worsens significantly, and has begun to protrude from her femur. Before her recent admittance to the hospital, she had been doing well, finishing her memoir, and living in the countryside.

The four remaining women have recently received notice that USRC would cease covering any medical expenses not approved by Dr. Craver, which included home nurses and routine office visits. The company cite economic trouble as the reason, and accuse the women of exploiting the company.

The depression is hurting the company, but there is another radium poisoning case that makes headlines and threatens business further. Eben Byers, a high-profile businessman, had been taking extreme amounts of Radithor, a radium-infused tonic prescribed after an injury. Soon after providing evidence to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that radium was the cause of his illness, Byers dies. Radium is quickly regulated, and radium-based medicines is banned. Because USRC is a major supplier of radium for these companies, it suffers huge losses, and the Orange factory is razed.

Meanwhile, the girls continue to live their lives despite their health troubles. Suddenly, Katherine’s leg tumor grows worse and her condition rapidly declined. She dies on February 18, 1933 at 30 years old. Grace follows her on October 27, 1933, with cause of death listed as radium sarcoma.

Part 2, Chapters 37-40 Analysis

The short chapters that cut to Ottawa further the plot and weave together the simultaneous narratives. Moore uses cliff-hanger endings to build suspense, anticipation, and to keep the reader interested.

Eben Byer’s death is a significant turning point in the history of radium’s regulation. It is notable that his high-profile death garnered more attention and follow up than did the many deaths of the poor workers before him; as Moore writes, “The authorities reacted with much more alacrity than they had in the cases of the dial-painters” (342). This indicates that the workers’ lives are considered less important, and their testimonies less impactful, than that of a wealthy man. Still, despite that injustice, Byers’s death works in the favor of the dial-painters and is important in ending the harmful myths about radium’s health benefits and regulating the substance.

Grace and Katherine’s deaths are key moments in the book. With Grace’s death, Moore impresses upon the reader that the dial-painters’ stories should be remembered. She breaks the fourth wall to point out that the reader is an active participant, highlighting the book’s purpose as a memorial to the dial-painters. This passage’s placement at the very end of Part 2 leaves it on a sad note but prepares the reader for the battle ahead in Part 3.