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13iscute 's review for:
The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
Back to the Classics Challenge #3 - Classic by a woman author
About 40% of this ebook was Helen Keller's autobiography of the early years of her life, from her earliest memories to her third year as a Radcliffe student. The remaining portion of the book was selected letters from when she first learned to write around age 8 to her second year of college.
At 19 months, Helen Keller fell gravely ill. She recovered, but she lost her hearing and vision. A few years later, her parents brought Anne Sullivan to teach Helen. Well-known is the story of how Anne taught Helen her first word by spelling "water" into her hand while running her other hand under a stream of water. From there, it's incredible how much Helen learns and absorbs language. Her first letters are very basic, but she quickly improves and somehow by age 9 or so she is writing fully fluently, better than most adults could write today. Helen and Anne travel around the country, going to a few different schools, including the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, another school for the blind in New York, and a Cambridge girls preparatory school. She also has private teachers, and Anne Sullivan is with her throughout. She passes her examinations to get into Radcliffe, and enrolls as a student, where as a junior she writes this autobiography, which is published first in installments in a ladies' magazine, then as a book.
As a modern reader, I had trouble getting past Helen's privilege. All of her private teachers, traveling, and schooling must have been so expensive, and funded by what was left of her family's Old South slave money. She was connected to many of the prominent men, including Alexander Graham Bell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and her and my beloved Rev. Phillips Brooks (of PBHA legacy). I had to keep reminding myself that this was late 1800s/early 1900s. She was the first deaf and blind person to graduate from university. Of course she needed money to accomplish that, but it was still an incredible accomplishment. She was unbelievably smart and learned, and I can't imagine studying all of what she did, even without disabilities. She also was an advocate for other deaf-and-blind children without her means, and raised money so they could attend school. This book was also published early in her life, so some of her later controversies (like supporting eugenics) are not evident.
As interesting as this story is, it was a little bit of a chore to get through it. The language was very descriptive, and I like things to move along more quickly. However, it was interesting to think how she could describe all of the sights and sounds of the world without experiencing them. There is an editor's note to say how she can understand all of these things intellectually, even though she can't imagine them. She also admits to herself and her reader that she absorbs a lot of other people's thoughts and writings into her psyche, and can't be sure when her thoughts are her own. This is illustrated in an episode that was especially distressing to her, when she is accused of plagiarizing when a celebrated story she writes turns out to be similar to another published story, that had been read to her but she had no conscious memory of.
About 40% of this ebook was Helen Keller's autobiography of the early years of her life, from her earliest memories to her third year as a Radcliffe student. The remaining portion of the book was selected letters from when she first learned to write around age 8 to her second year of college.
At 19 months, Helen Keller fell gravely ill. She recovered, but she lost her hearing and vision. A few years later, her parents brought Anne Sullivan to teach Helen. Well-known is the story of how Anne taught Helen her first word by spelling "water" into her hand while running her other hand under a stream of water. From there, it's incredible how much Helen learns and absorbs language. Her first letters are very basic, but she quickly improves and somehow by age 9 or so she is writing fully fluently, better than most adults could write today. Helen and Anne travel around the country, going to a few different schools, including the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, another school for the blind in New York, and a Cambridge girls preparatory school. She also has private teachers, and Anne Sullivan is with her throughout. She passes her examinations to get into Radcliffe, and enrolls as a student, where as a junior she writes this autobiography, which is published first in installments in a ladies' magazine, then as a book.
As a modern reader, I had trouble getting past Helen's privilege. All of her private teachers, traveling, and schooling must have been so expensive, and funded by what was left of her family's Old South slave money. She was connected to many of the prominent men, including Alexander Graham Bell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and her and my beloved Rev. Phillips Brooks (of PBHA legacy). I had to keep reminding myself that this was late 1800s/early 1900s. She was the first deaf and blind person to graduate from university. Of course she needed money to accomplish that, but it was still an incredible accomplishment. She was unbelievably smart and learned, and I can't imagine studying all of what she did, even without disabilities. She also was an advocate for other deaf-and-blind children without her means, and raised money so they could attend school. This book was also published early in her life, so some of her later controversies (like supporting eugenics) are not evident.
As interesting as this story is, it was a little bit of a chore to get through it. The language was very descriptive, and I like things to move along more quickly. However, it was interesting to think how she could describe all of the sights and sounds of the world without experiencing them. There is an editor's note to say how she can understand all of these things intellectually, even though she can't imagine them. She also admits to herself and her reader that she absorbs a lot of other people's thoughts and writings into her psyche, and can't be sure when her thoughts are her own. This is illustrated in an episode that was especially distressing to her, when she is accused of plagiarizing when a celebrated story she writes turns out to be similar to another published story, that had been read to her but she had no conscious memory of.