In her own words, the legendary American icon who overcame adversity to become a brilliant writer and powerful advocate for the disabled: The Story of My Life, The World I Live In, plus a dozen revealing personal letters, public speeches, essays, and moreHere, in a deluxe hardcover edition, is the inspiring story of an American icon—“the greatest woman of our age,” as Winston Churchill put it—in her own words.
The Story of My Life (1903), published just before she became the first deaf-blind college graduate in the United States, brought Helen Keller worldwide fame, and has remained a touchstone for generations. Recounting her astonishing relationship with her teacher, Annie Sullivan, "the Miracle Worker," it offers still-vivid testimony of the transformative power of love and faith in overcoming adversity.
Keller’s underappreciated literary artistry and philosophical acumen are especially evident in the personal essays that make up
The World I Live In (1908): exploring her own “disability,” she reflects profoundly on language, thinking, dreams, belief, and the relations between the senses.
Also included are more than a dozen letters, speeches, essays, and other works—most of them from out-of-print, uncollected, or previously unpublished sources—charting more than 50 years of Keller’s exemplary life and career. These pieces reveal her commitments to women’s rights, workers’ rights, racial justice, and peace, as well as her advocacy for the disabled.
Kim E. Nielsen, Keller’s biographer and the author of
A Disability History of the United States, introduces the volume, which includes a 16-page portfolio of photographs and a newly researched chronology of Keller’s life, along with authoritative notes and an index.
"A deluxe hardcover edition of Keller's classic memoir The Story of My Life--presented in complete and unredacted form--along with the brilliant, still-underappreciated personal essays of The World I Live In, in which Keller reflects on the senses, language, philosophy, dreams, and belief. Includes a selection of more than a dozen essays, speeches, and letters--most of them out-of-print, previously uncollected, or previously unpublished--revealing Keller's thoughts on religion and faith, women's rights and workers' rights, racial injustice, and the peace movement. Chapters from her later memoir Midstream recall her friendship with Mark Twain, and memories of her mother"--
