When she was nineteen months old an illness left Helen deaf, blind, and mute. Though a wild, destructive child, she showed such signs of intelligence that her mother sent for a special teacher. The teacher, young Anne Sullivan, herself formerly blind, managed to break through to communicate with Helen. The child loved to learn, and her remarkable achievements in reading, writing and even speaking soon made her internationally famous.

Helen earned a bachelor's degree at Radcliffe, where Anne Sullivan accompanied her to every class and spelled the lectures into her hand. She wrote poetry, toured on the Chatauqua lecture circuit, and published an autobiography, The Story of My Life. Helen became a member of the Socialist Party. She also supported controversial groups like the Industrial Workers of the World, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Margaret Sanger's birth control crusade.

In the 1920s, the newly established American Foundation for the Blind asked Helen Keller to help them raise funds. She was living testimony to the capabilities of a group once assumed to be retarded and helpless, and she spent most of the rest of her life as the most prominent advocate for the needs and rights of the handicapped. She lobbied for measures to aid the blind, including reading services and Social Security acceptance.

Additional Resources:Hermann, Dorothy. Helen Keller: a life. New York: A. Knopf, 1998. NOTES: Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-378) and index.

Lash, Joseph P. Helen and Teacher: the story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy. New York: Deacorte Press / Seymour Lawrence, c1980. NOTES: "Radcliffe biography series." "A Merloyd Lawrence book." Includes index. Bibliography: p. biography series p.[787]-789. U.S. Commemerative postage stamp entitled: "Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan" inserted.

Brooks, Van Wyck. Hellen Keller; sketch for a portrait. New York: Dutton, 1956. NOTES: "Abridged from published in Harper's magazine, March, 1954."

The Story of My Life New York: Douobleday, Page & Company, 1902.

The World I live In New York: The Century Co., 1908.

Out of the Dark. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913.

Midstream - My Later Life. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1930.

Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1955.

Helen Keller's Journal. London: M. Joseph, 1938.

Papers 1900-1968, 62 items. Radcliffe College, The Arthur & Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Papers ca. 1908-1954, 2000 items, 5 containers. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Washington, D.C.