Helen Keller(1880-1968)
- Writer
Helen Keller contracted a virulent childhood disease which resulted in
complete loss of sight and hearing at nineteen months. Her parents
futilely sought help for her, as did family friend Alexander Graham
Bell. Finally, when Keller was seven, Annie Sullivan, a young teacher,
was hired by the family. Through a system involving a constant physical
contact with Sullivan, a touch alphabet "spelled" into Keller's hand,
persistence, faith, and love - detailed in The Miracle Worker (1962) - Keller suddenly
and amazingly understood; she quickly and efficiently learned language,
and the world opened to her. She asked to be taught to speak at the age
of ten. With Sullivan's important emotional and intellectual support,
Keller's development took off. Keller graduated - cum laude - from
Radcliffe College in 1904. Sullivan was her companion until her death
in 1936. Helen Keller wrote prolifically, traveled widely, lectured on
various personal, political, and academic topics, and was awarded
numerous honorary degrees from universities around the world. She died
in 1968, one of the most famous and widely-admired women of our
time.
