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
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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.
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.
My Religion
by Helen KellerHere is a mind kept singularly pure from childhood; here is a religious experience unhampered by the blindness of any sectarianism; here is a spiritual insight, a gift of perception, undulled by absorption in the things of sense life. Here is one in whom the Lord worked a miracle, and Helen Keller declares to us "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see."
The Radical Lives of Helen Keller
by Kim E. NielsenA political biography that reveals new sides to Helen KellerSeveral decades after her death in 1968, Helen Keller remains one of the most widely recognized women of the twentieth century. But the fascinating story of her vivid political life—particularly her interest in radicalism and anti-capitalist activism—has been largely overwhelmed by the sentimentalized story of her as a young deaf-blind girl. Keller had many lives indeed. Best known for her advocacy on behalf of the blind, she was also a member of the socialist party, an advocate of women's suffrage, a defender of the radical International Workers of the World, and a supporter of birth control—and she served as one of the nation's most effective but unofficial international ambassadors. In spite of all her political work, though, Keller rarely explored the political dimensions of disability, adopting beliefs that were often seen as conservative, patronizing, and occasionally repugnant. Under the wing of Alexander Graham Bell, a controversial figure in the deaf community who promoted lip-reading over sign language, Keller became a proponent of oralism, thereby alienating herself from others in the deaf community who believed that a rich deaf culture was possible through sign language. But only by distancing herself from the deaf community was she able to maintain a public image as a one-of-a-kind miracle.Using analytic tools and new sources, Kim E. Nielsen's political biography of Helen Keller has many lives, teasing out the motivations for and implications of her political and personal revolutions to reveal a more complex and intriguing woman than the Helen Keller we thought we knew.
The Miracle Worker
by William GibsonNO ONE COULD REACH HER Twelve-year-old Helen Keller lived in a prison of silence and darkness. Born deaf, blind, and mute, with no way to express herself or comprehend those around her, she flew into primal rages against anyone who tried to help her, fighting tooth and nail with a strength born of furious, unknowing desperation. Then Annie Sullivan came. Half-blind herself, but possessing an almost fanatical determination, she would begin a frightening and incredibly moving struggle to tame the wild girl no one could reach, and bring Helen into the world at last....
The Song of the Stone Wall
by Helen KellerAn unrhymed poem, fashioned from traditional style, first published in 1910 in which a rough, enduring old stone wall, that winds over hill and meadow, becomes a symbol of New England history. Its importance lies in the meaning it held for Helen Keller, and the strength she gained from its existence.
The Touch of Magic
by Lorena A. HickokThe story of Helen Keller's great teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy
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.
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.
Meet Helen Keller - An eStory
by Charles MargerisonBeing able to see and hear are gifts that many of us take for granted. In this inspirational title from The Amazing People Club, you will get to hear the amazing Helen Keller story. Follow her journey from early childhood where frustration, confusion and anger were part of her everyday life. Discover what made her go on to become the first deaf and blind person to earn her degree. Her motivations and fighting spirit led her to proceed to travel the world to educate people on politics and women's rights. Despite disabilities, she succeeded in many ways, making major contributions to our world. Her story comes to life through BioViews®. These are short biographical narratives, similar to interviews. They provide an easy way of learning about amazing people who made major contributions and changed our world.
Helen's Big World
by Doreen Rappaport and Matt TavaresThis picturebook biography is an excellent and accessible introduction for young readers to learn about one of the world's most influential luminaries. With her signature style of prose laced with stirring quotes, Doreen Rappaport brings to life Helen Keller's poignant narrative. Acclaimed illustrator Matt Tavares beautifully captures the dynamism and verve of Helen Keller's life and legacy, making Helen's Big World an unforgettable portrait of a woman whose vision for innovation and progress changed America-and the world-forever.
Blind Rage
by Georgina KleegeThe author writes letters to the late Helen Keller to explore different aspects of her life.
I Am Helen Keller (Ordinary People Change the World)
by Brad MeltzerWe can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times Bestselling picture book biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer When Helen Keller was very young, she got a rare disease that made her deaf and blind. Suddenly, she couldn't see or hear at all, and it was hard for her to communicate with anyone. But when she was six years old, she met someone who change her life forever: her teacher, Annie Sullivan. With Miss Sullivan's help, Helen learned how to speak sign language and read Braille. Armed with the ability to express herself, Helen grew up to be come a social activist, leading the fight for people with disabilities and so many other causes.
Helen Keller (Rebel Lives)
by Helen Keller and John DavisA different portrayal of Keller, who is usually remembered for her work aiding blind and deaf-blind people.
Deaf and blind herself from the age of 19 months, Keller did indeed devote her adult life to helping those similarly afflicted - she was also a crusading Socialist, championing the poor and oppressed from all walks of life and leading a fight against the less obvious evil of social blindness.
John Davis has collected her political writing and speeches, including her arguments for women's suffrage, her opposition to the world wars and support for Eugene V. Debs.
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!
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.
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
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.
"Miracle Worker" and the Transcendentalist
by David WagnerHelen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, remain two of the best-known American women. But few people know how Sullivan came to her role as teacher of the deaf and blind Keller. Contrasting their lives with Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, the era's prominent abolitionist, this book sheds light on the gender and disability expectations that affected the public perception of Sullivan and Keller. This book provides a fascinating insight into class, ethnicity, gender, and disability issues in the Gilded Age and Progressive-Era America.
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.
Optimism, and Strike Against War
by Helen KellerAn essay on optimism by the famous author, activist, and lecturer, as well as a speech called Strike Against War that she gave at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 5, 1916 in opposition to World War I.
Helen Keller
by Kathleen V. KudlinskiA biography detailing Helen Keller's adventurous life as she worked tirelessly to lead the way for handicapped people.
Who Was Helen Keller?
by Gare Thompson and Nancy HarrisonAt age two, Helen Keller became deaf and blind. She lived in a world of silence and darkness and she spent the rest of her life struggling to break through it.
But with the help of teacher Annie Sullivan, Helen learned to read, write, and do many amazing things. This inspiring illustrated biography is perfect for young middle-grade readers.
Black-and-white line drawings throughout, sidebars on related topics such as Louis Braille, a timeline, and a bibliography enhance readers' understanding of the subject.