Helen Keller and her Context
A Review of
Keller: Autobiographies & Other Writings: The Story of My Life; The World I Live In; Essays, Speeches, and Letters
Kim E. Nielsen, editor
Hardcover: Library of America, 2024
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Reviewed by C.S. Boyll
I asked my teenage granddaughters if they knew who Helen Keller was. They giggled, shuffled uncomfortably, and said, “Yeah, she was a blind and deaf lady. This boy at school tells jokes about her.”
Of course, I will give them the recently published Keller: Autobiographies & Other Writings, now part of the Library of America’s Literary Classics. It’s a worthy addition to the more than 300 volumes that help preserve U.S. cultural heritage, using quality printing (acid-free paper, cloth covers, ribbon markers, sewn bindings).
Keller, 1880-1968, remains remarkable for many reasons. She became the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from an American university (Harvard’s Radcliffe College, 1904); she learned to speak French, German, as well as English, and read Greek and Latin; she wrote 14 books and over 475 speeches and essays; she traveled worldwide, speaking and advocating for peace and equal rights for the underprivileged; she circulated among the celebrities of her time (presidents, kings and queens, Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., etc.). She leaned into socialism and Christian faith through a Swedenborgian lens. She was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union. Mark Twain said of her that she and Napoleon were the most interesting characters of the 19th century ( 234).
But how does one do so much without sight and hearing? Her feats could not have been accomplished without assistance undergirded by love, and yet the book illuminates Keller’s strong will, intellect, and work ethic.
Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Keller’s world became dark and silent at the age of 19 months, probably the result of meningitis. By some accounts, she was considered a “wild, uncouth little creature” and for her early formative years, her middle class family endured and raised her the best they could. She created about sixty made-up hand signs to communicate her wants, yet as she grew, her frustration and anger made her a danger to herself and others.
Fortunately, her parents connected with Alexander Graham Bell, who recommended the Perkins School for the Blind, in Boston. In 1887, the school sent one of their graduates, governess Anne Sullivan, 20, born to Irish immigrants and afflicted with weak eyes. In both Helen and Sullivan’s accounts, their beginning together was mutually life-changing. Keller said,
“On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant….Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line….I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbor was. ‘Light!’ Give me light!’ was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour’” (31).
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This Keller ship was about to do battle with Miss Sullivan. From their first day together, “Teacher” spelled words (American manual alphabet) into six-year-old Helen’s palm and tried to help her connect letters to objects. The child mimicked but did not understand. After a few days at the Keller home, Sullivan wrote to the school, “Helen’s table manners are appalling. She puts her hands in our plates and helps herself, and when the dishes are passed, she grabs them and takes out whatever she wants. This morning I would not let her put her hand in my plate. She persisted, and a contest of wills followed.”
“Naturally the family was much disturbed, and left the room. I locked the dining room door, and proceeded to eat my breakfast, though the food almost choked me. Helen was lying on the floor, kicking and screaming, and trying to pull my chair from under me. She kept this up for half an hour, then she got up to see what I was doing. I let her see that I was eating, but did not let her put her hand in the plate. She pinched me, and I slapped her every time she did it. Then she went all round the table to see who was there, and finding no one but me, she seemed bewildered.”
“After a few minutes she came back to her place and began to eat her breakfast with her fingers. I gave her a spoon, which she threw on the floor. I forced getting her back in the chair again, and held the spoon in her hand. In a few minutes she yielded and finished her breakfast peaceably. Then we had another tussle over folding her napkin….It was another hour before I succeeded in getting her napkin folded. Then I left her out into the warm sunshine and went up to my room and threw myself on the bed exhausted. I had a good cry…I suppose I shall have many such battles with the little woman before she learns the only two essential things I can teach her, obedience and love” (254).
Once Keller made the breakthrough of connecting words to objects, her trust and love for Teacher remained secure for almost 50 years. (See 1962 movie The Miracle Worker.)
The book’s primary sources present an amazing account of how a person’s thought process develops through touch, smell, and taste. The sources challenge the reader to utilize and appreciate God-given sensory gifts. In one essay Helen persuades the reader that she, too, sees and hears by her senses. Her love for literature, languages, nature, animals, and other people is beautifully expressed throughout.
There are many interesting mentions in Keller’s timeline that one wishes for more explanation. For example, Harvard professor John Albert Macy, Keller’s autobiography editor, married Anne Sullivan but the marriage was troubled. Helen had at least two suitors propose to her. Although many benefactors contributed to Keller’s financial security (Andrew Carnegie included), Keller/Sullivan did the vaudeville circuit with audience q & a from 1920-24.
The book’s lovely black and white photographs of Keller, Teacher, and many well-known people offer extra historic depth to her time. Although the primary sources may make the book somewhat disjointed, it was a pleasure to become acquainted with Helen through hers and Sullivan’s writings, letters, and journal excerpts. She lived well.
C.S. Boyll
Cynthia Schaible (C.S.) Boyll writes from Colorado. She is a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for two foster children. Her picture bookAlways Flying Bobby, with illustrator Jessica Santiesteban, released in April. Find her atwww.csboyll@q.com.
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