Helen Keller (1) (1880–1968)

When a toddler, Helen Keller was stricken with a devastating illness which left her both deaf and blind. With no means of communicating her desires, needs or emotions with her family members, her next few years were tumultuous for all. Anne Sullivan, a teacher, arrived at their home when Keller was six years old and was successful over time in breaking through Keller's veil of darkness and silence, beginning by teaching her the names of objects in her environment by spelling words into her hand. Keller ultimately learned to read braille, to write and type using a braille typewriter, and even to speak aloud with intensive coaching. She also became a student of history, mathematics, and multiple languages, and graduated from college. This is the first of her autobiographies, written at age twenty.

In my youth I had read an abridged-for-children version of this autobiography, and that, combined with cultural knowledge absorbed, made her story already feel pretty familiar. As the book is overall relatively brief, the addition of correspondence was interesting, particularly Keller's earliest efforts, but I grew somewhat bored with her letters after a while. When I try to imagine how one could successfully learn abstract concepts without the benefit of sight or hearing it kind of blows my mind. Keller was clearly possessed of great intelligence and a brain starved for learning during her years of darkness. As someone with full use of all my senses I have difficulty imagining the rigor of her studies, not to mention the selfless dedication of Sullivan whose constant presence, and who had to spell every single word of every conversation and in every textbook out for Keller using the hand alphabet, made Keller's achievements possible. I find it impossible that Sullivan didn't experience burnout, but her own feelings about her 50-year commitment are rarely spoken of.… (meer)

This is Helen Keller’s autobiography (for about the first half). Then, it includes some of the letters Helen wrote to various people. Helen, of course, was both blind and deaf in the late 19th century as a child when she and a teacher had a breakthrough as her teacher, Annie Sullivan, was trying to teach her to communicate. Helen grew up to become very educated and published more than one book.

I listened to the audio, and it was ok, but I did lose focus more than I would have liked. It turns out Helen loved books and reading, which was interesting. It was kind of repetitive between the biography portion, then much of what was in the letters had already also been mentioned in the autobiography. Helen Keller was a pretty impressive woman.… (meer)