Helen Keller’s Followers (1,820)

Helen Keller

Born

in Tuscumbia, Alabama, The United States

June 27, 1880

Died

June 01, 1968

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Nonfiction

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Blind and deaf since infancy, American memoirist and lecturer Helen Adams Keller learned to read, to write, and to speak from her teacher Anne Sullivan, graduated from Radcliffe in 1904, and lectured widely on behalf of sightless people; her books include Out of the Dark (1913).

Conditions bound not Keller. Scarlet fever rendered her deaf and blind at 19 months; she in several languages and as a student wrote The Story of My Life . In this age, few women then attended college, and people often relegated the disabled to the background and spoke of the disabled only in hushed tones, when she so remarkably accomplished. Nevertheless, alongside many other impressive achievements, Keller authored 13 books, wrote countless articles, and de Blind and deaf since infancy, American memoirist and lecturer Helen Adams Keller learned to read, to write, and to speak from her teacher Anne Sullivan, graduated from Radcliffe in 1904, and lectured widely on behalf of sightless people; her books include Out of the Dark (1913).

Conditions bound not Keller. Scarlet fever rendered her deaf and blind at 19 months; she in several languages and as a student wrote The Story of My Life . In this age, few women then attended college, and people often relegated the disabled to the background and spoke of the disabled only in hushed tones, when she so remarkably accomplished. Nevertheless, alongside many other impressive achievements, Keller authored 13 books, wrote countless articles, and devoted her life to social reform. An active and effective suffragist, pacifist, and socialist (the latter association earned her a file of Federal Bureau of Investigation), she lectured on behalf of disabled people everywhere. She also helped to start several foundations that continue to improve the lives of the deaf and blind around the world.

As a young girl, obstinate Keller, prone to fits of violence, seethed with rage at her inability to express herself. Nevertheless, at the urging of Alexander Graham Bell, Anne Sullivan, a teacher, transformed this wild child at the age of 7 years in an event that she declares "the most important day I remember in all my life." (After a series of operations, Sullivan, once blind, partially recovered her sight.) In a memorable passage, Keller writes of the day "Teacher" led her to a stream and repeatedly spelled out the letters w-a-t-e-r on one of her hands while pouring water over the other. This method proved a revelation: "That living world awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away." And, indeed, most of them were.

In her lovingly crafted and deeply perceptive autobiography, Keller's joyous spirit is most vividly expressed in her connection to nature:

Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom, had a part in my education.... Few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand, or the beautiful motion of the lilies as they sway in the morning breeze. Sometimes I caught an insect in the flower I was plucking, and I felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a sudden terror....

The idea of feeling rather than hearing a sound, or of admiring a flower's motion rather than its color, evokes a strong visceral sensation in the reader, giving The Story of My Life a subtle power and beauty. Keller's celebration of discovery becomes our own. In the end, this blind and deaf woman succeeds in sharpening our eyes and ears to the beauty of the world. --Shawn Carkonen

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Combine Editions
Helen Keller’s books

Average rating: 4.07 · 159,281 ratings · 5,032 reviews · 289 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Story of My Life 4.08 avg rating — 150,388 ratings — published 1902 — 1022 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	لو أبصرت ثلاثة أيام by Helen Keller, هيلين كيلر, عبد الهادي التازي (Translator) 3.79 avg rating — 4,251 ratings — published 1933 — 46 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The World I Live In by Helen Keller, Roger Shattuck (Introduction) 3.97 avg rating — 1,232 ratings — published 1904 — 174 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Miracle Worker: Selected Works of Helen Keller 4.20 avg rating — 511 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Story of my life; with her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan by Helen Keller, John Albert Macy 3.96 avg rating — 538 ratings — published 1902 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Optimism 3.94 avg rating — 404 ratings — published 1903 — 134 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Story of my Life (Term 1 & 2) Summary in English & Hindi for Class 10 3.63 avg rating — 336 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Light in my Darkness by Helen Keller, Dorothy Herrmann (Foreword), Ray Silverman (Editor) 4.10 avg rating — 295 ratings — published 1994 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy 4.16 avg rating — 211 ratings — published 1954 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The World I Live In and Optimism: A Collection of Essays 4.14 avg rating — 194 ratings — published 2010 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Helen Keller…

Quotes by Helen Keller (?)

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
― Helen Keller

22815 likes

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”
― Helen Keller

13326 likes

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”
― Helen Keller

tags: by-anne-sullivan, emotions, feelings

5552 likes

See all Helen Keller's quotes »

Polls

April 2018 New School Poll

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, 183 pages, 1968

65 votes, 18.3%

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, 181 pages, 1945

41 votes, 11.5%

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, 439 pages, 1946

34 votes, 9.6%

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, 240 pages, 1902

33 votes, 9.3%

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, 233 pages, 1932

27 votes, 7.6%

Blindness by José Saramago, 326 pages, 1995

26 votes, 7.3%

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, 554 pages, 1982

21 votes, 5.9%

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, 232 pages, 1938

21 votes, 5.9%

Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald, 225 pages, 1932

21 votes, 5.9%

Native Son by Richard Wright, 504 pages, 1940

17 votes, 4.8%

Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, 688 pages, 1933

11 votes, 3.1%

The Ambassadors by Henry James, 528 pages, 1903

10 votes, 2.8%

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien, 239 pages, 1939

10 votes, 2.8%

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, 176 pages, 1987

9 votes, 2.5%

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, 345 pages, 1974

4 votes, 1.1%

Explosion in a Cathedral by Alejo Carpentier, 360 pages, 1962

3 votes, 0.8%

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, 644 pages, 1929

2 votes, 0.6%

355 total votes

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Helen Keller’s Followers (1,820)

Helen Keller

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Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Helen Keller’s books