The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert MacyKeller, Helen
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The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy
Keller, Helen
Deafblind women -- United States -- Biography; Keller, Helen, 1880-1968
has made a most judicious and discreet use of this privilege. What
the little pupil has thus far accomplished is widely known, and her
wonderful attainments command general admiration; but only those who
are familiar with the particulars of the grand achievement know that the
credit is largely due to the intelligence, wisdom, sagacity, unremitting
perseverance and unbending will of the instructress, who rescued the
child from the depths of everlasting night and stillness, and watched
over the different phases of her mental and moral development with
maternal solicitude and enthusiastic devotion."
Here follow in order Miss Sullivan's letters and the most important
passages from the reports. I have omitted from each succeeding report
what has already been explained and does not need to be repeated. For
the ease of the reader I have, with Miss Sullivan's consent, made the
extracts run together continuously and supplied words of connection and
the resulting necessary changes in syntax, and Miss Sullivan has made
slight changes in the phrasing of her reports and also of her letters,
which were carelessly written. I have also italicized a few important
passages. Some of her opinions Miss Sullivan would like to enlarge and
revise. That remains for her to do at another time. At present we have
here the fullest record that has been published. The first letter is
dated March 6, 1887, three days after her arrival in Tuscumbia.
...It was 6.30 when I reached Tuscumbia. I found Mrs. Keller and Mr.
James Keller waiting for me. They said somebody had met every train for
two days. The drive from the station to the house, a distance of one
mile, was very lovely and restful. I was surprised to find Mrs. Keller
a very young-looking woman, not much older than myself, I should think.
Captain Keller met us in the yard and gave me a cheery welcome and a
hearty handshake. My first question was, "Where is Helen?" I tried with
all my might to control the eagerness that made me tremble so that I
could hardly walk. As we approached the house I saw a child standing in
the doorway, and Captain Keller said, "There she is. She has known all
day that some one was expected, and she has been wild ever since her
mother went to the station for you." I had scarcely put my foot on the
steps, when she rushed toward me with such force that she would have
thrown me backward if Captain Keller had not been behind me. She felt
my face and dress and my bag, which she took out of my hand and tried to
open. It did not open easily, and she felt carefully to see if there was
a keyhole. Finding that there was, she turned to me, making the sign
of turning a key and pointing to the bag. Her mother interfered at this
point and showed Helen by signs that she must not touch the bag. Her
face flushed, and when her mother attempted to take the bag from her,
she grew very angry. I attracted her attention by showing her my watch
and letting her hold it in her hand. Instantly the tempest subsided, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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