Helen Keller Biography Age, Career Family, Books, and Much More

Helen Keller Biography Age, Career Family, Books, and Much More

Helen Keller came into the world on the 27th of June 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, specifically in the area that is now West Tuscumbia. At the young teenager’s age, she was struck by a serious disease that made her deaf and blind.

Family

His father, Arthur, was employed as a journalist, while the mother of her child, Kate, diligently managed the household and took care of the young Helen. Through the first few years in her existence, Helen relied on home signs as her primary source for communicating. However, her life changed drastically when she was seven years old and met Anne Sullivan, her first teacher and long-term companion.

Helen Keller Father Pic

Helen Keller’s Mother Pic

Helen Keller’s Husband Pic

Helen Keller’s Daughter Pic

Helen Keller Childhood Pic

Education

After completing her studies at both mainstream and specialized schooling, Keller embarked on an academic journey that led the student through Radcliffe College, a part of Harvard University. It was remarkable that she earned the distinction of being the first deafblind person in the United States to attain a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Infirmity

When Helen was just one and a half years old, she began to get very sick. Helen’s Swiss relatives was the first teacher of those who were deaf in Zurich. Modern doctors believe that it may be a case of meningitis, caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) or Haemophilus influenzae. Keller was diagnosed at the age of 19 with a condition (possibly scarlet fever) that left her deaf and blind. She was a survivor according to her account in her autobiography “at sea in the thick fog”.

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Frustration

Helen tried to connect with people around her. Helen Keller was viewed as an isolated person, but she was connected to the outside world. Helen Keller had a specific motion she used to show that she wished to see her dad or her mom. She was able to listen to music by squeezing the beat. She was able to establish an intimate connection with animals via touch. 

However, she did get annoyed. She was slow to pick the language, but it didn’t stop her from speaking. She discovered that she was unique and found it extremely difficult to communicate with others the things she wanted to say. She could throw up outrage, kick, or hit others in outrage.

Anne Sullivan stayed as a partner with Helen Keller long after she taught her. Then Helen’s parents realized that she required special assistance. Helen was a young lady from Scotland with no prior previous experience working with blind or deaf people. Annie was blind but was able to see by a procedure. She was able to work as a secretary and then became a permanent friend of Keller. Annie joined Helen on the 3rd of March 1887. She was her assistant and friend throughout the following 50 years.

Words to Learn Words

On the 22nd of January in 1916 Keller as well as Sullivan went to the tiny city of Menomonie in the western part of Wisconsin to give a lecture on the Mabel Tainter Memorial Building. Helen taught Helen various phrases. Helen would say the words in Annie’s hands. 

The details of her speech were included in the newspaper of the week Dunn County News on January 22 1916:

A message of hope and hope, of happiness and of love for others was delivered to Menomonie on Saturday. It’s a message that will stay for those lucky enough to be able to receive it. The message was delivered with the presence of Menomonie by Helen Keller and her teacher Mrs. John Macy, and both played a part in sharing it on Saturday evening to an enthusiastic crowd that filled The Memorial. Helen Keller, the amazing woman who achieved such a remarkable feat over the three afflictions of dumbness, blindness, and deafness, delivered a speech that she spoke from her mouth about “Happiness” and will be remembered as an inspiring piece of teaching for those who listened to it.

Works

Keller published twelve published books as well as a few articles. Keller wanted to inspire her readers and provide them with hope. One of her early works of fiction, written at 11 years old she wrote The Frost King (1891). She was a member of The American Foundation for the Blind and toured the country, making speeches and generating funds for their foundation. 

There was a suggestion that the story was plagiarized from The Frost Fairies by Margaret Canby. Then, in World War II, she visited wounded soldiers, encouraging them to not quit. A study into the incident discovered that Keller could have had an episode of cryptomnesia which meant that she was able to hear the story of Canby read to her, but she did not remember it, and the memory was lingering in her mind. 

Helen was a tireless worker throughout her time working to raise funds and awareness for disabled people particularly those who are blind and deaf. When Keller was a child, Anne Sullivan introduced her to Phillips Brooks, who introduced her to Christianity, Keller famously said: “I always knew He was there but I had no idea his name!”

• “The Frost King” (1891)
• The Story of My Life (1903)
• The essay “Optimism” (1903) composed by T. Y. Crowell and his company
• My Key of Life: The Optimist (1904), Isbister
• The World I Live In (1908)
• The the miracle of living (1909) Hodder and Stoughton
• “The Song of Stone Wall” (1910) The Century co.
• Out from the Dark, a series of essays on socialism (1913)
• Uncle Sam He’s calling (set to music composed by Pauline B. Story) (1917)[63]
• My Religion (1927; also referred to as Light in My Darkness)
• Midstream: my later life (1929) Doubleday, Doran & Company
• We bereaved. (1929) L. Fulenwider, Inc
• Peace at eventide (1932) Methuen & co. ltd
• Helen Keller in Scotland: an account of her personal life made by her (1933) The Methuen Collection, 221 pages
• The journal of Helen Keller (1938) M. Joseph 296 pages
• Let Us Be Faithful (1940), Doubleday, & Doran & co. Inc.
• Teachers: Anne Sullivan Macy: A tribute from the foster child in her thoughts. (1955), Doubleday (publisher)
• The Open Door (1957), Doubleday 140 pages
• Helen Keller’s faith Helen Keller (1967)
• Helen Keller: her socialist years speech, writings and writings (1967)

Married Life

Sullivan got married to John Macy in 1905, and her health began to decline at the time of 1914.

The Second Life, Death, and the Afterlife

Portrait of the head and shoulder of a radiant Helen celebrating her 80th birthday in June of 1960. On September 14 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United States’ two highest civilian honours. On her trip to Washington, she also called President John F. Kennedy at the White House. 

In 1965, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at the New York World’s Fair. President Kennedy was only one of many presidents Helen had seen. Keller spent a large portion of her final years to generating funds to support the American Foundation for the Blind. Throughout her life, she was able to meet all of the presidents prior to Grover Cleveland. 

She passed away in her sleep on the 1st of June in 1968 from her residence, Arcan Ridge, located in Easton, Connecticut, just a few weeks shy of her birthday, which was eighty-eighth. Her ashes were laid beside her friends, Anne Sullivan Macy and Polly Thomson, in St. Joseph’s Chapel of Washington Cathedral. Her remains were interred in the Washington National Cathedral next to her companions who were always there, Anne Sullivan and Polly Thomson.