Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years

by Helen Keller, Philip S. Foner (editor)

Helen Adams Keller (6/27/1880–6/1/68), author, political activist & lecturer, was the 1st deafblind person to earn a BA. She campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism & other radical causes. She was as an advocate for the disabiled, a suffragist, a pacifist, an opponent of Woodrow Wilson, a radical socialist & a birth control supporter. In 1915 she & George Kessler founded the Helen Keller Internat'l organization, devoted to research in vision, health & nutrition. In 1920 she helped to found the ACLU. She traveled to over 40 countries. She met every President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson & was friends with famous figures like Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin & Mark Twain. Keller & Twain were both considered radicals at the beginning of the 20th century. As a consequence, their political views have been forgotten or glossed over. She was a member of the Socialist Party & campaigned & wrote in support of the working class from 1909 to 1921. She supported SP candidate Eugene V. Debs in each of his campaigns for the presidency. Before reading Progress & Poverty, she was already a socialist who believed that Georgism was a good step in the right direction. She later wrote of finding "in Henry George’s philosophy a rare beauty & power of inspiration, & a splendid faith in the essential nobility of human nature." Newspaper columnists who had praised her courage & intelligence before she expressed socialist views now called attention to her disabilities. The editor of the Brooklyn Eagle wrote that her "mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development." She responded to that editor, referring to having met him before he knew of her political views: "At that time the compliments he paid me were so generous that I blush to remember them. But now that I have come out for socialism he reminds me & the public that I am blind & deaf & especially liable to error. I must have shrunk in intelligence during the years since I met him....Oh, ridiculous Brooklyn Eagle! Socially blind & deaf, it defends an intolerable system, a system that is the cause of much of the physical blindness & deafness which we are trying to prevent." She joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1912, saying that parliamentary socialism was "sinking in the political bog". She wrote for the IWW between 1916 & 1918. In Why I Became an IWW, she explained that her motivation for activism came in part from her concern about blindness & other disabilities. She also cited the 1912 strike of textile workers in Lawrence, MA for instigating her support of socialism.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

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

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprising collection for anyone who knew Keller merely from the cheesy play or elementary school lessons about the-little-blind-deaf-girl-who-could. Whereas The Story of My Life read like a loosely connected collection of college essays and The World I Live In was more a work of philosophy, this book reveals Keller as a socialist firebrand--there is no more accurate word for these impassioned and often biting editorials, essays, and speeches. She seems to have replaced the young, naive, and idealistic views expressed in Optimism for a more fierce rhetoric of action and change, announcing herself as a vocal supporter of the IWW, birth control, Eugene Debs, the workers’ revolution, Joe Hill, the war against disease and poverty (“The Only Kind of War I Believe In”), women’s suffrage, and the Bolsheviks. Her speeches in support of Soviet Russia are peppered with revolutionary language. (“Onward, comrades, all together, onward to the life-giving fountain of dawn!”) In short, this was nothing less than an eye-opening collection. (No pun intended, although Keller would have approved, since she advocated that the blind and deaf shouldn’t shy away from metaphors of vision in their communication.) I guess not much has changed in the United States, as Keller would still be considered a radical for these views.

This edition also includes an informative Introduction and endnotes by Philip S. Foner, who doesn't hesitate to guide the reader quite often to his 10-volume History of the Labor Movement for more information on many topics. I might very well take him up on those suggestions.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went through one of my periods of political activism during the eighties, spurred in part by the aggressions of the Reagan administration, in part by a friend simply asking me to help out with the activities of the Socialist Party in Illinois, in part by the fact that my girlfriend--later, wife--was involved in the disabled rights movement. Reading Keller's "writings and speeches" neatly combined my interests in disabled and socialist activism.

The essays and addresses aren't, for the most part, deep. They're more on the level of newspaper opinion editorials. Still, for those of us who only knew Keller as played by Patty Duke, they help flesh out the whole person.

[E Money The Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It makes no difference whether the Tories or the Liberals in Great Britain, or the Republicans or Democrats in the United States, or any party of the old model in any country, get the upper hand. . .

Are not the dominant parties managed by the ruling classes, that us, the propertied classes, solely for the profit and privilege of the few? They use us millions to help them into power. They tell us, like so many children, that our safety lies in voting for them. They toss us crumbs of concession to make us believe that they are working in our interest. Then they exploit the resources of the nation not for us, but for the interests which they represent and uphold. We, the people, are not free. Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. We elect masters to do our work for us, and then blame them because they work for themselves and not their class.” -Helen Keller in a letter to an English suffragette

Who knew Helen Keller could spit such fire?

[Julia]

This is a collection of articles, letters, and excerpts from talks by Helen Keller between 1912 and 1925. It includes "How I Became a Socialist" and "Why I Became an IWW". Several of the articles are supportive of the Russian Revolution.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helen was a rebel and a total socialist. I love it. What a bad ass. She was for the workers and against the capitalists and all their wars. By kind of lady!