Helen Keller

Helen Keller is a biography of the celebrated deaf-blind author, activist, and lecturer. Written by Eileen Bigland and ideal for young readers between ten and fourteen years old, this volume is an introduction to the fascinating life and journey of a remarkable woman who defied the odds and became one of the most accomplished and beloved figures of her time. Black-and-white drawings are interspersed throughout the text to add a further dimension to the narrative. Though initially published before Keller's 1968 death, subsequent editions are updated to include Keller's final years.

Born to an affluent family on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Keller at first enjoys a relatively normal life for an infant of her era. Then, at nineteen months old, she contracts a still-unknown illness that robs her of her sight and hearing. By nature curious, inquisitive, and energetic, Keller spends her early years trying to discover the world around her, to not much avail. Her attempts to experience her environment often frustrate those in her orbit, and as she grows increasingly isolated in her own insular world, Keller is temperamental and prone to misbehavior. However, with no tangible template for what is acceptable or unacceptable, and with parents who are loving but not entirely sure how to raise a daughter with such uniquely special needs, Keller desperately requires guidance and instruction. Her parents contact a school for the blind in New England requesting their help. The school dispatches a recent graduate from their program to live with the Kellers in Alabama and to take over seven-year-old Helen's instruction.

Enter Anne Sullivan. Born with vision problems of her own and struggling with sight issues for the remainder of her life, Sullivan knows what it is like to hide from the world because of a physical disability. She also knows what it is like to surmount such challenges by learning to navigate and understand the world through less traditional means. Sullivan patiently steers Keller toward more socially acceptable behaviors, waiting out Keller's frequent outbursts and destructive tendencies and eventually getting through to her with an unorthodox approach. Sullivan teaches her student by tapping different codes into Keller's palm, with each code representing a different letter. Through this avenue and infinite patience, Sullivan not only teaches Keller to read and write, but helps her makes the crucial connections necessary to understand the relationships between words and objects.



The methods Sullivan uses are revolutionary in other ways too. Instead of introducing objects to Keller, she encourages Keller to feel and smell and discover objects on her own. Then, Sullivan teaches her the names of these objects, what they are used for, etc. This way, Keller is directing her own encounters with her environment and with what she learns, and she can rely on her two very keen senses of sight and touch to guide her. Sullivan's approach—and her student's family money—allows Keller to stay in her own environment when people like her were traditionally institutionalized. Sullivan's novel system for her pupil lays the groundwork for all that Keller will accomplish in her long life. There is a good reason why history remembers Sullivan as "the miracle worker."

Keller is a living, breathing miracle whom readers get to know in accessible terms. A mere two years after learning vocabulary, Keller sends an admiring letter to the poet John Greenleaf Whittier. "It is very pleasant to live here in our beautiful world. I cannot see the lovely things with my eyes, but my mind can see them all, and so I am joyful all day long," she writes to him. "I love you dearly, because you have taught me so many lovely things about flowers, and birds, and people."

With Sullivan's teachings as a springboard, Keller sets off for Radcliffe College, then a part of Harvard University. She graduates at the age of twenty-four in 1904, becoming the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Keller devotes the rest of her life to raising awareness about disabilities and funds for research and support programs. She becomes a prolific writer as well, with The Story of My Life and other subsequent writings documenting her experiences as a deaf-blind person in a seeing and hearing world. Keller's writings also delve into her humanitarian work, her religious convictions, and her passionate political stances. Far from retreating from society as she had before Sullivan came along, the adult Helen Keller is a force to be reckoned with, firmly in, and of this world.



After Sullivan moves on, a Scottish housekeeper named Polly Thompson starts to care for Keller. With Keller advancing in years, Thompson becomes her near-constant companion. Even though she has no specific training in working with deaf-blind people, Thompson proves to be an indispensable support for Keller. The two women share a deep and abiding friendship until Thompson's death in 1960. Keller dies eight years later, just a few weeks after her eighty-eighth birthday. With her ashes buried alongside those of Sullivan and Thompson at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Helen Keller remains as towering and inspiring today as she did when she was alive.