"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, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding line, and 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." Words of Helen Keller. Helen Keller overcame many personal trials and proved language can liberate the blind and the deaf. She was an American author and lecturer. Her past was her inspiration for her future. Mark Twain enjoyed a personal friendship with Helen Keller and described her as...."the most marvelous person of her sex that has existed on this earth since Joan of Arc." And Theodore Zeldin, author of An Intimate History of Humanity wrote that "no history of the world can be complete which does not mention Mary Helen Keller...whose overcoming of her blindness and deafness were arguably victories more important than those of Alexander the Great, because they have implications still for every living person." 

Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880. Her birthplace is Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was blind and deaf from the age of 18 months due to an illness. The doctors called it "brain fever"....today it is believed it was scarlet fever or meningitis. As she grew older her inability to see and speak led to frustration. She began to act unruly and wild. She and her parents visited a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland. He believed Helen could be taught and he advised them to visit a local expert on the problems of deaf children. This expert was Alexander Graham Bell. Bell was the inventor of the telephone. At this point in his life he was concentrating on teaching deaf children, what he considered his true vocation. Bell suggested the Kellers write the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind and request a teacher for Helen. Michael Anagnos, director of the institute, recommended a former pupil of the institution, Anne Sullivan. 

Anne Sullivan arrived in Tuscumbia on March 3, 1887. Anne taught Helen to finger spell right away. First teaching her to spell "d-o-l-l" the word for a present she herself had brought Helen. Even though Helen could repeat the words she learned, she didn't have a real understanding of what she was learning. She frequently threw temper tantrums when she couldn't make others understand her. Anne and Helen moved into a small cottage behind the main house, in an effort to improve Helen's social skills and in particular Helen's table manners. Helen’s behavior improved and the two formed what became a life-long bond. 

After about a month at the cottage....a "miracle" occurred. Helen later recounted the incident like this: “We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honey-suckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.” Helen describes the day as...."the most important day in all my life." She fell to the ground and Anne spelled "earth" in Helen's hand. By the end of the day Helen knew thirty words. Helen's world was changed. Anne describes the change like this...."Helen got up this morning like a radiant fairy. She has flitted from object to object, asking the name of everything and kissing me for very gladness. Last night when I got into bed, she stole into my arms of her own accord and kissed me for the first time, and I thought my heart would burst, so full was it of joy." 

Helen had a gift for communication. By the age of ten she could read and write Braille. She learned to read lips by using her hands, and she learned how to use a typewriter. Helen learned to write. She learned Latin, German, and French. She also began to speak. Helen was enrolled in Perkins Institute for the blind. Anne attended school with Helen and helped during lectures, and with transcribing lessons into Braille. Helen attended Radcliffe College, the women's branch of Harvard University. She graduated "cum laude" in 1904 with a B.A. degree. Helen Keller became the first blind and deaf person to graduate from college. 

In November, 1916 Peter Fagan and Helen took out a marriage license in Boston. Helen's mother forced her to publicly renounce her engagement. No details were found except that Helen and Peter stayed in contact for a while, but the relationship eventually faded. 

She began to write while at college. She first wrote The Story of My Life. Some of her other books are....The World I Live In, Helen Keller's Journal, Let Us Have Faith, and The Open Door. She also wrote for several magazines and newspapers. Her writings were most often about blindness, deafness, social issues, and women's rights. Helen starred in a silent movie about her own life in 1919. In 1921 the American Federation for the Blind was formed. Helen began to travel to fulfill her role as spokeswoman for the federation. While giving encouragement to the blind and deaf, Helen also spoke out against the inequality of women in the world. She fought for racial equality. She stood up for the disabled and the working class wherever she spoke. She was such a zealous socialist that J. Edgar Hoover had the FBI keep a file on her. During World War II Helen spent her time visiting military personnel who had lost their sight and/or hearing because of wartime injury. She described this time as “the crowning experience of my life.” 

Over her lifetime, Helen lectured in more than thirty-five countries on the five major continents. Helen Keller brought hope to millions of blind and deaf-blind people. By her life she has shown millions of people that disabilities are not the end of the world. She also inspired those people without disabilities to be more compassionate toward those less fortunate. She said....“The public must learn that the blind man is neither genius nor a freak nor an idiot. He has a mind that can be educated, a hand which can be trained, ambitions which it is right for him to strive to realize, and it is the duty of the public to help him make the best of himself so that he can win light through work.”

Helen received many awards. One was the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that an American civilian can receive. She was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1968. Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, just a few weeks before her 88th birthday. Senator Lister Hill of Alabama delivered her eulogy and expressed the sentiments of the world when he said of Helen, "She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith." 

Helen Keller Quotes

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