In was rainy season. Yamuna river was running in spate and overflowing. The gushing water was making a loud noise. The Emperor’s palace was situated on the river bank. He was fast asleep.It was a peaceful night and so, the frightening sound of the roaring river could be heard very clearly. Suddenly in the midnight, […]
LITERARY STYLE No one can have read Miss Keller’s autobiography without feeling that she writes unusually fine English. Any teacher of composition knows that he can bring his pupils to the point of writing without errors in syntax or in the choice of words. It is this accuracy which Miss Keller’s early education fixes as
SPEECH The two persons who have written authoritatively about Miss Keller’s speech and the way she learned it are Miss Sarah Fuller,* of the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston, Massachusetts, who gave her the first lessons, and Miss Sullivan, who, by her unremitting discipline, carried on the success of these first lessons.Before
EDUCATION It is now sixty-five years since Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe knew that he had made his way through Laura Bridgman’s fingers to her intelligence. The names of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller will always be linked together, and it is necessary to understand what Dr. Howe did for his pupil before one comes to
PERSONALITY Mark Twain has said that the two most interesting characters of the nineteenth century are Napoleon and Helen Keller. The admiration with which the world has regarded her is more than justified by what she has done. No one can tell any great truth about her which has not already been written, and all
THE WRITING OF THE BOOK It is fitting that Miss Keller’s Story of My Life should appear at this time. What is remarkable in her career is already accomplished, and whatever she may do in the future will be but a relatively slight addition to the success which distinguishes her now. That success has just
Helen Keller’s letters are important, not only as a supplementary story of her life, but as a demonstration of her growth in thought and expression – the growth which in itself has made her distinguished.These letters are, however, not merely remarkable as the productions of a deaf and blind girl, to be read with wonder
The Story Of My Life (Part II-Letters & Introduction ) Read More »
Would that I could enrich this sketch with the names of all those who have ministered to my happiness! Some of them would be found written in our literature and dear to the hearts of many, while others would be wholly unknown to most of my readers. But their influence, though it escapes fame, shall
I trust that my readers have not concluded from the preceding chapter on books that reading is my only pleasure; my pleasures and amusements are many and varied.More than once in the course of my story I have referred to my love of the country and out-of-door sports. When I was quite a little girl,
I have thus far sketched the events of my life, but I have not shown how much I have depended on books not only for pleasure and for the wisdom they bring to all who read, but also for that knowledge which comes to others through their eyes and their ears. Indeed, books have meant
The struggle for admission to college was ended, and I could now enter Radcliffe whenever I pleased. Before I entered college, however, it was thought best that I should study another year under Mr. Keith. It was not, therefore, until the fall of 1900 that my dream of going to college was realized.I remember my
When I began my second year at the Gilman school, I was full of hope and determination to succeed. But during the first few weeks I was confronted with unforeseen difficulties. Mr. Gilman had agreed that that year I should study mathematics principally. I had physics, algebra, geometry, astronomy, Greek and Latin. Unfortunately, many of
In October, 1896, I entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, to be prepared for Radcliffe.When I was a little girl, I visited Wellesley and surprised my friends by the announcement, “Some day I shall go to college – but I shall go to Harvard!” When asked why I would not go to Wellesley, I
In the summer of 1894, I attended the meeting at Chautauqua of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. There it was arranged that I should go to the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. I went there in October, 1894, accompanied by Miss Sullivan. This school
Before October, 1893, I had studied various subjects by myself in a more or less desultory manner. I read the histories of Greece, Rome and the United States. I had a French grammar in raised print, and as I already knew some French, I often amused myself by composing in my head short exercises, using