*A great soul. KR IRS 10124 * *Helen Keller* (born June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia <https://www.britannica.com/place/Tuscumbia>, Alabama <https://www.britannica.com/place/Alabama-state>, U.S.—died June 1, 1968, Westport <https://www.britannica.com/place/Westport-Connecticut>, Connecticut) American author and educator who was blind <https://www.britannica.com/science/blindness-medicine> and deaf <https://www.britannica.com/science/deafness>. Her education <https://www.britannica.com/topic/education> and training represent an extraordinary accomplishment in the education of persons with these disabilities. [image: Helen Keller's birthplace] <https://cdn.britannica.com/29/102029-004-66D381A2/Helen-Keller-birthplace-Tuscumbia-Ala.jpg> Helen Keller's birthplace <https://cdn.britannica.com/29/102029-004-66D381A2/Helen-Keller-birthplace-Tuscumbia-Ala.jpg> Helen Keller's birthplace, Tuscumbia, Alabama. [image: Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan] <https://cdn.britannica.com/90/75590-050-20CA1715/Helen-Keller-Anne-Sullivan.jpg> Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan <https://cdn.britannica.com/90/75590-050-20CA1715/Helen-Keller-Anne-Sullivan.jpg> Helen Keller (left) with her teacher, Anne Sullivan.
Keller was afflicted at the age of 19 months with an illness (possibly scarlet fever <https://www.britannica.com/science/scarlet-fever>) that left her blind and deaf. She was examined by Alexander Graham Bell <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Graham-Bell> at the age of 6. As a result, he sent to her a 20-year-old teacher, Anne Sullivan (Macy) <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anne-Sullivan> from the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, which Bell’s son-in-law directed. Sullivan, a remarkable teacher, remained with Keller from March 1887 until her own death in October 1936. Within months Keller had learned to feel objects and associate them with words spelled out by finger signals on her palm, to read sentences by feeling raised words on cardboard, and to make her own sentences by arranging words in a frame. During 1888–90 she spent winters at the Perkins Institution learning Braille <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Braille-writing-system>. Then she began a slow process of learning to speak under Sarah Fuller <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sarah-Fuller> of the Horace Mann School <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Horace-Mann-School> for the Deaf, also in Boston. She also learned to lip-read by placing her fingers on the lips and throat of the speaker while the words were simultaneously spelled out for her. At age 14 she enrolled in the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City <https://www.britannica.com/place/New-York-City>, and at 16 she entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies in Massachusetts. She won admission to Radcliffe College in 1900 and graduated cum laude <https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/cum%20laude> in 1904. [image: Helen Keller] <https://cdn.britannica.com/72/142272-050-12F9270F/Helen-Keller-1904.jpg> Helen Keller <https://cdn.britannica.com/72/142272-050-12F9270F/Helen-Keller-1904.jpg> Helen Keller, c. 1904. [image: How did Helen Keller learn to communicate?] <https://www.britannica.com/video/221178/did-you-know-Hellen-Keller> How did Helen Keller learn to communicate? Learn more about the life and accomplishments of Helen Keller. See all videos for this article <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helen-Keller/images-videos> Having developed skills never approached by any similarly disabled person, Keller began to write of blindness <https://www.britannica.com/science/blindness-medicine>, a subject then taboo in women’s magazines because of the relationship of many cases to venereal disease <https://www.britannica.com/science/sexually-transmitted-disease>. Edward W. Bok <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Bok> accepted her articles for the *Ladies’ Home Journal* <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ladies-Home-Journal>, and other major magazines—*The Century*, *McClure’s*, and *The Atlantic Monthly* <https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Atlantic-Monthly>—followed suit. [image: Helen Keller] <https://cdn.britannica.com/70/142270-050-0565B455/Helen-Keller-book-Braille-1904.jpg> Helen Keller <https://cdn.britannica.com/70/142270-050-0565B455/Helen-Keller-book-Braille-1904.jpg> Helen Keller with a Braille book, c. 1904. She wrote of her life in several books, including *The Story of My Life* (1903), *Optimism* (1903), *The World I Live In* (1908), *Light in My Darkness* and *My Religion* (1927), *Helen Keller’s Journal* (1938), and *The Open Door* (1957). In 1913 she began lecturing (with the aid of an interpreter), primarily on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind, for which she later established a $2 million endowment fund, and her lecture tours took her several times around the world. She cofounded the American Civil Liberties Union <https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Civil-Liberties-Union> with American civil rights <https://www.britannica.com/topic/civil-rights> activist Roger Nash Baldwin <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roger-Nash-Baldwin> and others in 1920. Her efforts to improve treatment <https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/treatment> of the deaf and the blind were influential in removing the disabled from asylums. She also prompted the organization of commissions for the blind in 30 states by 1937. Keller’s childhood training with Sullivan was depicted in William Gibson’s <https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Gibson-American-Canadian-author> play *The Miracle Worker* <https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Miracle-Worker-film-1962> (1959), which won the Pulitzer Prize <https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pulitzer-Prize> in 1960 and was subsequently made into a motion picture <https://www.britannica.com/art/motion-picture> (1962), starring Anne Bancroft <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anne-Bancroft> as Sullivan and Patty Duke <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patty-Duke> as Keller, that won two Academy Awards <https://www.britannica.com/art/Academy-Award>. On Wed, 10 Jan 2024 at 04:32, Jambunathan Iyer <[email protected]> wrote: > “Your success and happiness lie in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your > joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” —Helen > Keller > > N Jambunathan Rengarajapuram-Kodambakkam-Chennai-Mob:9176159004 > > *" What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you > become by achieving your goals. If you want to live a happy life, tie it to > a goal, not to people or things "* > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZopChhTQVGd2RPeusHjVKhtX_bqqaAcDbrHFV-OmPVjsGQ%40mail.gmail.com.
