

Miss Sullivan teaches Helen how to name objects by handing them to her and having her spell out the letters in their names. When Helen's teacher, Anne Sullivan, moved in with the family in Alabama in March1887, she completely transformed Helen's life. She was diagnosed with a disease that left her blind and deaf when she was one year old.Įven with her family, it was difficult for her to communicate in the early years after her illness she lived in complete darkness, frequently furious and irritated that no one could understand her. Hopkins, to whom Miss Sullivan wrote those illuminating letters, the extracts from which give a better idea of her methods with her pupil than anything heretofore published.Helen Keller was born in the little Alabama town of Tuscumbia on June 27, 1880. John Hitz, Superintendent of the Volta Bureau for the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge relating to the Deaf and Mrs. Laurence Hutton, who supplied him with her large collection of notes and anecdotes Mr. Alexander, who have been unfailingly kind and have given for use in this book all the photographs which were taken expressly for the Journal and the Editor thanks Miss Keller's many friends who have lent him her letters to them and given him valuable information especially Mrs. The Editor desires to express his gratitude and the gratitude of Miss Keller and Miss Sullivan to The Ladies' Home Journal and to its editors, Mr.

For the third part of the book the Editor is responsible, though all that is valid in it he owes to authentic records and to the advice of Miss Sullivan. The addition of a further account of Miss Keller's personality and achievements may be unnecessary yet it will help to make clear some of the traits of her character and the nature of the work which she and her teacher have done. Much of her education she cannot explain herself, and since a knowledge of that is necessary to an understanding of what she has written, it was thought best to supplement her autobiography with the reports and letters of her teacher, Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan. The first two, Miss Keller's story and the extracts from her letters, form a complete account of her life as far as she can give it. The Story of My Life - Helen Keller's Autobiography by Helen Keller.
