Special Collections
Helen Keller Collection
Description: A collection featuring biographies and non-fiction books by and about Helen Keller. For books by and about other members of the deaf-blind community, visit: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/collection/194343 #disability
- Table View
- List View
Beyond the Miracle Worker
by Kim E. NielsenAfter many years, historian and Helen Keller expert Kim Nielsen realized that she, along with other historians and biographers, had failed Anne Sullivan Macy. While Macy is remembered primarily as Helen Keller's teacher and mythologized as a straightforward educational superhero, the real story of this brilliant, complex, and misunderstood woman, who described herself as a "badly constructed human being," has never been completely told.
Beyond the Miracle Worker, the first biography of Macy in nearly fifty years, complicates the typical Helen-Annie "feel good" narrative in surprising ways. By telling the life from Macy's perspective-not Keller's-the biography is the first to put Macy squarely at the center of the story. It presents a new and fascinating tale about a wounded but determined woman and her quest for a successful, meaningful life.
Born in 1866 to poverty-stricken Irish immigrants, the parentless and deserted Macy suffered part of her childhood in the Massachusetts State Almshouse at Tewksbury. Seeking escape, in love with literature, and profoundly stubborn, she successfully fought to gain an education at the Perkins School for the Blind. As an adult, Macy taught Keller, helping the girl realize her immense potential, and Macy's intimate friendship with Keller remained powerful throughout their lives.
Yet as Macy floundered with her own blindness, ill health, and depression, as well as a tumultuous and triangulated marriage, she came to lean on her former student, emotionally, physically, and economically. Based on privately held primary source material, including materials at both the American Foundation for the Blind and the Perkins School for the Blind, Beyond the Miracle Worker is revelatory and absorbing, unraveling one of the best known-and least understood-friendships of the twentieth century.
Blind Rage
by Georgina KleegeAs a young blind girl, Georgina Kleege repeatedly heard the refrain, “Why can’t you be more like Helen Keller?” Kleege’s resentment culminates in her book Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller, an ingenious examination of the life of this renowned international figure using 21st-century sensibilities.
Kleege’s absorption with Keller originated as an angry response to the ideal of a secular saint, which no real blind or deaf person could ever emulate. However, her investigation into the genuine person revealed that a much more complex set of characters and circumstances shaped Keller’s life.
Blind Rage employs an adroit form of creative nonfiction to review the critical junctures in Keller’s life. The simple facts about Helen Keller are well-known: how Anne Sullivan taught her deaf-blind pupil to communicate and learn; her impressive career as a Radcliffe graduate and author; her countless public appearances in various venues, from cinema to vaudeville, to campaigns for the American Foundation for the Blind. But Kleege delves below the surface to question the perfection of this image.
Through the device of her letters, she challenges Keller to reveal her actual emotions, the real nature of her long relationship with Sullivan, with Sullivan’s husband, and her brief engagement to Peter Fagan.
Kleege’s imaginative dramatization, distinguished by her depiction of Keller’s command of abstract sensations, gradually shifts in perspective from anger to admiration.
Blind Rage criticizes the Helen Keller myth for prolonging an unrealistic model for blind people, yet it appreciates the individual who found a practical way to live despite the restrictions of her myth.
Blind Rage
by Georgina KleegeThe author writes letters to the late Helen Keller to explore different aspects of her life.
From Homer to Helen Keller
by Richard Slayton FrenchFrom Homer to Helen Keller, Homer stands for the greatest achievement of the blind in the times antecedent to their systematic education. He stands for all those bards, many of them blind or blinded, creators of literature and makers of our language, who through ballads, always of great vigor and sometimes of surpassing beauty, have handed down to us the glorious traditions of far-off heroic times.
Miss Keller stands for the supreme achievement of education. The blind claim her, but the deaf can claim her, too, and modern education can claim her more than either--and all humanity claims her with the best claim of all. For she is the epitome of all that is best in humanity, all that is most spiritual; and all this through conscious aim and directed effort, through education in its best sense.
A Girl Named Helen Keller
by Margo LundellRead about the life of a blind and deaf girl who brought hope to other people in the world.
Give Me a Sign, Helen Keller!
by Peter Roop and Connie RoopIn this book, you will find out all about Helen Keller, before she made history.
Helen in Love
by Rosie SultanThe astonishing and imaginative debut novel about Helen Keller and the man she loved
What comes to mind when you think of Helen Keller? Is it the deaf-mute wild child at the water pump outside her Tuscumbia, Alabama, home portrayed in The Miracle Worker or the adult activist for the rights of the disabled and women, the socialist who vehemently opposed war? Rosie Sultan's debut novel imagines an intimate part of Keller's life she rarely spoke or wrote about: her one and only love affair.
Peter Fagan, a reporter from Boston, steps in as her secretary when her companion Annie Sullivan falls ill. The world this opens up for her is not the stuff of grade school biographies. Their affair meets with stern disapproval from Annie and from Helen's mother, and when the lovers plot to elope, Helen is trapped between their expectations and her innermost desires. Sultan's courageous novel insists on Helen's right to desire, to human frailty--to be fully and completely alive.
Helen Kellar Jeevitha Gadha
by Nannapaneni MangadeviHelen Kellar Jeevitha Gadha is the life story of Helen Kellar simplified for students to understand about her life and experiences.
Helen Keller
by Leslie GarrettTells the inspirational tale of this spirited crusader. In this groundbreaking new series, DK brings together fresh voices and DK design values to give readers the most information-packed, visually exciting biographies on the market today. Full-color photographs of people, places, and artifacts, definitions of key words, and sidebars on related subjects add dimension and relevance to stories of famous lives that students will love to read.
Helen Keller
by Emma Carlson Berne and Marie HodgeHelen Keller lived in darkness and silence, but she dazzled the world with her accomplishments. Her powerful story lives on in this remarkable biography by Emma Carlson Berne. Find out about: the illness that destroyed young Helen s sight and hearing; her explosive first meeting with her teacher Annie Sullivan; her struggle to become the first blind/deaf student ever awarded a degree from prestigious Radcliffe College; the romance that almost led to marriage and her life as writer, lecturer and world traveller.
Helen Keller
by Dorothy HerrmannA comprehensive biography of Helen Keller, focusing not only on her disabilities and challenges and how she overcame them or made them moot, but also on her relationships, her work with other challenged and inspirational people, her involvement in the arts as subject and as participant, and her political beliefs and actions.
Helen Keller
by Margaret DavidsonThe bestselling biography of Helen Keller and how, with the commitment and lifelong friendship of Anne Sullivan, she learned to talk, read, and eventually graduate from college with honors.
Helen Keller
by Richard TamesThe life of Helen Keller told in this biography also contains brief historical highlights that help illuminate certain concepts discussed in the book.
Helen Keller
by Anne SchraffBiography of the young deaf-blind girl who became a famous writer. Guided by Time Magazine's list of 100 most influential people, this series biographies focuses on the leaders, scientists, and icons who shaped our world. Each biography includes a glossary, timeline, and illustrations.
Helen Keller
by Kathleen V. KudlinskiA biography detailing Helen Keller's adventurous life as she worked tirelessly to lead the way for handicapped people.
Helen Keller
by Katharine E. WilkieFocusing on her childhood years, this biography is about Helen Keller who overcame her handicaps with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan.
Helen Keller
by Grace NorwichMeet the extraordinary young woman who learned to read, write, and speak—even though she was deaf and blind.I am two years old when I become deaf and blind. I live in a world of darkness. I am finally able to read and write with the help of my teacher Annie Sullivan. I am Helen Keller.Learn all about this remarkable young woman whose accomplishments are truly inspiring, with this biography including:illustrations throughouta timelinean introduction to the other people you’ll meet in the book, including Helen’s amazing teacher and the men who fell in love with hermapssidebarsa top ten list of important things to know, and more
Helen Keller
by Carol GhiglieriHelen Keller was deaf and blind, but went on to learn and teach and advocate. Correlate with Guided Reading Levels J. For use with Grades K-2.
Helen Keller
by Stewart Graff and Polly Anne GraffFrom the age of a year and a half, Helen Keller could not hear. She could not see, and she did not speak. She lived in a dark and lonely world--until Annie Sullivan came to teach her. Annie traced letters and words in Helen's hand, and made Helen realize she could "talk" to people. Eager to make up for lost time, Helen threw herself into her studies. She decided to teach others about the special training deaf and blind children need. Helen traveled all over the globe and raised money to start up schools for deaf and blind children. Her courage and her determination to help others conquer the odds against them earned her the respect and admiration of the world.
Helen Keller
by Kim E Nielsen“[My life] is so rich with blessings—an immense capacity of enjoyment, books, and beloved friends. . . . Most earnestly I pray the dear Heavenly Father that I may sometime make myself far more worthy of the love shown to me than I am now.”—April 22, 1900 letter from Helen Keller to John Hitz, AFBWhen Helen Keller died in 1968, at the age of eighty-eight years old, she was one of the most widely known women in the world. The overnight success of her biography, The Story of My Life, written at age twenty-three, made it obvious to Keller that she was endowed with a gift for writing and speaking. As she got older, she increasingly began to do both on a variety of subjects extending beyond her own disability, including social, political, and theological issues.Helen Keller: Selected Writings collects Keller’s personal letters, political writings, speeches, and excerpts of her published materials from 1887 to 1968. The book also includes an introductory essay by Kim E. Nielsen, headnotes to each document, and a selected bibliography of work by and about Keller. The majority of the letters and some prints, all drawn from the Helen Keller Archives at the American Foundation for the Blind in New York, are being published for the first time.Literature, education, advocacy, politics, religion, travel: the many interests of Helen Keller culminate in this book and are reflected in her spirited narration. Also portrayed are the individuals Keller inspired and took inspiration from, including her teacher Annie Sullivan, her family, and others with whom she formed friendships throughout the course of her life.This often charming collection revels in and preserves Keller’s public and private life, coming to us in the year which marks the 125th anniversary of her birthday.
Helen Keller
by Johanna HurwitzWhen a childhood illness leaves her blind and deaf, Helen Keller's life seems hopeless indeed. But her indomitable will and the help of a devoted teacher empower Helen to triumph over incredible adversity. This amazing true story is finally brought to the beginner reader level.
Helen Keller
by Robert B. Noyed and Cynthia KlingelA phonics-based nonfiction book for level-two beginning readers, providing information about Helen Keller, a woman who achieved great things even though she could not see, speak, or hear. Includes an index and a list of books and Web sites for further study.
Helen Keller and the Big Storm
by Patricia LakinIt is a beautiful summer afternoon. Helen and her teacher have climbed a tree. While Helen waits for her teacher to get some snacks, a thunder storm strikes!
Helen Keller in Her Own Words
by Caroline KennonThough Helen Keller became deaf and blind after a childhood illness in 1882, she grew up to be a renowned author, activist, and speaker. With the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller overcame major obstacles in her life and used them to become an advocate for those experiencing discrimination and hardship. This inspiring biography uses Keller's own words as a primary source, so that readers can better know and understand this amazing woman and leader.
Helen Keller, Rebellious Spirit
by Laurie LawlorRecounting her mischievous nature, her little known romance, and her trials with her teacher and the public, this biography sheds new light on this extraordinary woman.