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Helen Adams Keller is a writer, political activist, and the lecturer in the United States. She is a writer and one of the famous book is "The World I Live In" and "The Story of My Life" which became a classic in American literature and translated into 50 languages.
Full Name : Helen Adams Keller
Place of Birth : Tuscumbia
date of Birth : June 27, 1880
Work : Writer, Activist, and Lecturer
Parents : Arthur H. Keller (father) and Kate Adams Keller (mother)
Helen Keller was the first of two daughters born to Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. She also had two older stepbrothers. Keller's father had proudly served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The family was not particularly wealthy and earned income from their cotton plantation. Later, Arthur became the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the North Alabamian.
Keller was born with
her senses of sight and hearing, and started speaking when she was just 6
months old. She started walking at the age of 1.
In 1882, however, Keller contracted an
illness—called "brain fever" by the family doctor—that produced a
high body temperature. The true nature of the illness remains a mystery today,
though some experts believe it might have been scarlet fever or meningitis.
Within a few days after the fever broke, Keller's mother noticed that her
daughter didn't show any reaction when the dinner bell was rung, or when a hand
was waved in front of her face. Keller had lost both her sight and hearing. She
was just 19 months old.
As Keller grew into
childhood, she developed a limited method of communication with her companion,
Martha Washington, the young daughter of the family cook. The two had created a
type of sign language, and by the time Keller was 7, they had invented more
than 60 signs to communicate with each other. But Keller had become very wild
and unruly during this time. She would kick and scream when angry, and giggle
uncontrollably when happy. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums
on her parents. Many family relatives felt she should be
institutionalized. Looking for answers and inspiration, in 1886, Keller's
mother came across a travelogue by Charles Dickens, American Notes.
She read of the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura
Bridgman, and soon dispatched Keller and her father to Baltimore, Maryland to
see specialist Dr. J. Julian Chisolm. After examining Keller, Chisolm
recommended that she see Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone,
who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell met with Keller and her
parents, and suggested that they travel to the Perkins Institute for the Blind
in Boston, Massachusetts. There, the family met with the school's director,
Michael Anaganos. He suggested Helen work with one of the institute's most
recent graduates, Anne Sullivan. And so began a 49-year relationship between
teacher and pupil. On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller's home in
Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching six year-old Helen
finger spelling, starting with the word "doll," to help Keller
understand the gift of a doll she had brought along. Other words would follow.
At first, Keller was curious, then defiant, refusing to cooperate with
Sullivan's instruction. When Keller did cooperate, Sullivan could tell that she
wasn't making the connection between the objects and the letters spelled out in
her hand. Sullivan kept working at it, forcing Helen to go through the regimen.
As Keller's
frustration grew, the tantrums increased. Finally, Sullivan demanded that she
and Keller be isolated from the rest of the family for a time, so that Keller
could concentrate only on Sullivan's instruction. They moved to a cottage on
the plantation.
In a dramatic
struggle, Sullivan taught Keller the word "water"; she helped her
make the connection between the object and the letters by taking Keller out to
the water pump, and placing Keller's hand under the spout. While Sullivan moved
the lever to flush cool water over Keller's hand, she spelled out the word
w-a-t-e-r on Helen's other hand. Keller understood and repeated the word in
Sullivan's hand. She then pounded the ground, demanding to know its
"letter name." Sullivan followed her, spelling out the word into her
hand. Keller moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. By nightfall, she had
learned 30 words.
In 1890, Keller
began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She
would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could understand her.
From 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New
York City. There, she worked on improving her communication skills and studied
regular academic subjects.
Around this time,
Keller became determined to attend college. In 1896, she attended the Cambridge
School for Young Ladies, a preparatory school for women. As her story became
known to the general public, Keller began to meet famous and influential
people. One of them was the writer Mark Twain, who was very impressed with her.
They became friends. Twain introduced her to his friend Henry H. Rogers, a
Standard Oil executive. Rogers was so impressed with Keller's talent, drive and
determination that he agreed to pay for her to
attend Radcliffe College. There, she was accompanied by Sullivan, who
sat by her side to interpret lectures and texts.
By this time, Keller
had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading,
Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling. With the help of Sullivan and
Sullivan's future husband, John Macy, Keller wrote her first book, The
Story of My Life. It covered her transformation from childhood to
21-year-old college student. Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe in
1904, at the age of 24.
In 1905, Sullivan
married John Macy, an instructor at Harvard University, a social critic and a
prominent socialist. After the marriage, Sullivan continued to be Keller's
guide and mentor. When Keller went to live with the Macys, they both initially
gave Keller their undivided attention. Gradually, however, Anne and John became
distant to each other, as Anne's devotion to Keller continued unabated. After
several years, they separated, though were never divorced.
After college, Keller set out to learn more about the world and how she
could help improve the lives of others. News of her story spread beyond
Massachusetts and New England. She became a well-known celebrity and lecturer
by sharing her experiences with audiences, and working on behalf of others
living with disabilities. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Keller
tackled social and political issues, including women's suffrage, pacifism and
birth control. She testified before Congress, strongly advocating to improve
the welfare of blind people. In 1915, along with renowned city planner George
Kessler, she co-founded Helen Keller International to combat the causes and
consequences of blindness and malnutrition. In 1920, she helped found the
American Civil Liberties Union.
When the American
Federation for the Blind was established in 1921, Keller had an effective
national outlet for her efforts. She became a member in 1924, and participated
in many campaigns to raise awareness, money and support for the blind. She also
joined other organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate, including
the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund (later called the American Braille Press).
Soon after she
graduated from college, Keller became a member of the Socialist Party, most
likely due in part to her friendship with John Macy. Between 1909 and 1921, she
wrote several articles about socialism and supported Eugene Debs, a Socialist
Party presidential candidate. Her series of essays on socialism, entitled
"Out of the Dark," described her views on socialism and world
affairs.
It was during this
time that Keller first experienced public prejudice about her disabilities. For
most of her life, the press had been overwhelmingly supportive of her, praising
her courage and intelligence. But after she expressed her socialist views, some
criticized her by calling attention to her disabilities. One newspaper,
the Brooklyn Eagle, wrote that her "mistakes sprung out of the
manifest limitations of her development."
In 1936, Keller's beloved teacher and devoted companion, Anne Sullivan,
died. She had experienced health problems for several years and, in 1932, lost
her eyesight completely. A young woman named Polly Thomson, who had begun working
as a secretary for Keller and Sullivan in 1914, became Keller's constant
companion upon Sullivan's death.
In 1946, Keller was
appointed counselor of international relations for the American Foundation of
Overseas Blind. Between 1946 and 1957, she traveled to 35 countries on five
continents. In 1955, at age 75, Keller embarked on the longest and most
grueling trip of her life: a 40,000-mile, five-month trek across Asia. Through
her many speeches and appearances, she brought inspiration and encouragement to
millions of people.
Keller's
autobiography, The Story of My Life, was used as the basis for 1957
television drama The Miracle Worker. In 1959, the story was
developed into a Broadway play of the same title, starring Patty Duke as Keller
and Anne Bancroft as Sullivan. The two actresses also performed those roles in
the 1962 award-winning film version of the play.
Keller suffered a series of strokes in 1961, and
spent the remaining years of her life at her home in Connecticut. During her
lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments,
including the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and election to the Women's Hall of Fame
in 1965. She also received honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University and
Harvard University and from the universities of Glasgow, Scotland; Berlin,
Germany; Delhi, India; and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Additionally, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the Educational Institute of
Scotland.
Keller
died in her sleep on June 1, 1968, just a few weeks before her 88th birthday.
During her remarkable life, Keller stood as a powerful example of how
determination, hard work, and imagination can allow an individual to triumph
over adversity. By overcoming difficult conditions with a great deal of
persistence, she grew into a respected and world-renowned activist who labored
for the betterment of others.
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