An American classic rediscovered by each generation, The Story of My Life is Helen Keller's account of her triumph over deafness and blindness , Popularized by the stage play and movie TheMiracle Worker, Keller’s story has become a symbol of hope for people all over the world. This book--published when Keller was only twenty-two--portrays the wild child who is locked in the dark and silent prison of her own body. With an extraordinary sense of immediacy, Keller reveals her frustrations and rage, and takes the reader on the unforgettable journey of her education andbreakthroughs into the world of communication. We see Keller as she finally realizes that her teacher's  finger-spelled letters mean "water." Suddenly, "that living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!" An unparalleled chronicle of courage, The Story of My Life remainsStartlingly fresh and vital nearly a century after its first publication, a timeless testament to an indomitable will.

Helen Kellerwas born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. At nineteen months old an acute illness nearly took her life and left her deaf and blind. At the recommen-dation of Alexander Graham Bell, her parents con-tacted the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, and Anne Sullivan was sent to tutor Helen. The story of their early years together, and of Helen’s remark-able psychological and intellectual growth, is told in The Story of My Life, which first appeared in install-ments in Ladies Home Journal in 1902. With Anne Sullivan, 'Teacher," at her side, Helen Keller gradu-ated from Radcliffe College in 1904, an extraordinary accomplishment for any woman of her lime. Helen was dedicated to helping the blind and handicapped,raising funds for the American Foundation for the Blind and lobbying for commissions for the blind in thirty states. A women"s-rights activist, a Sweden-borgian, a socialist, and a world-famous celebrity,Helen Keller received the Presidential Medal of Free-dom and many honorary degrees. Her other books include The World I Live In (1908), Midstream: My Later Life (1929), Helen Keller’s Journal (i938), and Let Us Have Faith (1940). She died in 1968. Her burial urn is in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

THE STORY OF MY LIFE

LETTERS