The Miracle Worker: Selected Works of Helen Keller

by Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker.
The Miracle Worker contains a brief biography of Helen Keller and three of her best known works; The Day Language Came Into My Life, The World I Live In, and Optimism.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Classics, School

83 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2011

About the author

Blind and deaf since infancy, American memoirist and lecturer Helen Adams Keller learned to read, to write, and to speak from her teacher Anne Sullivan, graduated from Radcliffe in 1904, and lectured widely on behalf of sightless people; her books include Out of the Dark (1913).

Conditions bound not Keller. Scarlet fever rendered her deaf and blind at 19 months; she in several languages and as a student wrote The Story of My Life . In this age, few women then attended college, and people often relegated the disabled to the background and spoke of the disabled only in hushed tones, when she so remarkably accomplished. Nevertheless, alongside many other impressive achievements, Keller authored 13 books, wrote countless articles, and devoted her life to social reform. An active and effective suffragist, pacifist, and socialist (the latter association earned her a file of Federal Bureau of Investigation), she lectured on behalf of disabled people everywhere. She also helped to start several foundations that continue to improve the lives of the deaf and blind around the world.

As a young girl, obstinate Keller, prone to fits of violence, seethed with rage at her inability to express herself. Nevertheless, at the urging of Alexander Graham Bell, Anne Sullivan, a teacher, transformed this wild child at the age of 7 years in an event that she declares "the most important day I remember in all my life." (After a series of operations, Sullivan, once blind, partially recovered her sight.) In a memorable passage, Keller writes of the day "Teacher" led her to a stream and repeatedly spelled out the letters w-a-t-e-r on one of her hands while pouring water over the other. This method proved a revelation: "That living world awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away." And, indeed, most of them were.

In her lovingly crafted and deeply perceptive autobiography, Keller's joyous spirit is most vividly expressed in her connection to nature:

Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom, had a part in my education.... Few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand, or the beautiful motion of the lilies as they sway in the morning breeze. Sometimes I caught an insect in the flower I was plucking, and I felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a sudden terror....

The idea of feeling rather than hearing a sound, or of admiring a flower's motion rather than its color, evokes a strong visceral sensation in the reader, giving The Story of My Life a subtle power and beauty. Keller's celebration of discovery becomes our own. In the end, this blind and deaf woman succeeds in sharpening our eyes and ears to the beauty of the world. --Shawn Carkonen

Reviews

[Miramuti · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love it i can't believe you wrote a book about the miracle worker and your blind and deaf but a want to thank Ann Sullivan who helped you and understand you .And we even started leaning about your life but i know that you faced many challenges and thank god that you survived on your high fever .Well, there's one thing i need to say that i am in 3rd grade but i know every thing about you so so happy that i read your book !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Victoria Pannell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my inspiration book. It was 1963 and seventh grade; I wasn’t much of a reader. There was a program at school to buy books and I picked out The Miracle Worker because I liked the title. It turned out to be the first book to capture my reading soul. I loved the story. I loved reading the story; I cried at the end. And I had that empty feeling when you’re finished with a book. The feeling you only get when you truly get lost in the pages and the words.

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe she was a miracle worker she loved teaching kids I bet if she was still alive today she would be able to hear for sure.

[Nikita Jain · Rating 1 out of 5]

good

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Chika Mika · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was way to short to hold anything of interest or fact.