The Story of My Life

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"The publication of The Story of My Life in 1903 revealed Helen Keller's astonishing life to the age of twenty-two. The book's honest and absorbing narrative dispelled the notoriety and scandal that had accompanied her treatment in the press. Many people simply could not believe that Anne Sullivan, an unknown young woman from Boston, had fought her way through seven-year-old Helen's deafness and blindness and had taught her to talk and to hear with her fingers. Skeptics, doubting that Helen could read and write better than most children her age, thought that she and Anne Sullivan must be charlatans and publicity seekers.". "The Story of My Life explained the "miracle" of Helen's education and the degree to which she had become a full human being, sharing and enjoying the visible and audible world. The book presented three interlocking versions of the story: Helen's own; Anne Sullivan's; and their assistant, John Macy's. For over sixty years, following the book's publication, Helen's writings and her inspiring public appearances served the causes of the deaf and the blind, the poor and the mistreated, the wounded in two wars, and the handicapped everywhere. When she died in 1968, Helen was widely compared to a saint. The New York Times referred to her as "a symbol of the indomitable human spirit.""--BOOK JACKET.