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Real Lives home page and list of other Real Lives
Helen Keller, the legendary campaigner for the disabled, was born in Alabama in 1880. When she was 19 months old, she fell ill with 'acute congestion of the stomach and brain' – possibly meningitis – which left her deaf and blind. Five years later, her isolation ended when her teacher Annie Sullivan taught her the 'manual alphabet', tapping out letters on her hand. Keller learned to read Braille, to write and even to speak. She gained admission to the prestigious Radcliffe College, where she wrote The Story of My Life. After graduating, Keller devoted her life to work for the blind and deaf.
That is the heroic version of the story. The real Helen Keller was a more complex character: a woman who rejected her teachers' methods, became a political radical who attracted the attentions of the FBI, and wrote books inspired by the Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg.
Educating the educators.
Helen Keller met Annie Sullivan through Alexander Graham Bell, a specialist in education for the blind and deaf, who advised Keller's father to contact the Boston-based Perkins Institution, where 50 years previously Samuel Howe had taught Laura Bridgman, a deafblind girl, to read. The Institution sent a teacher to live with the Kellers – 21-year-old Joanna 'Annie' Sullivan.
The Kellers were prosperous; Helen's father was a newspaper editor and an influential local figure. So Helen was supported financially by the family as well as by benefactors such as the railway magnate Andrew Carnegie. Sullivan, by contrast, was the daughter of poor Irish immigrants. Her motives for working with the Kellers were unheroic, as she wrote later, 'I came here simply because circumstances made it necessary for me to earn my living.'
Samuel Howe had taught Laura Bridgman by using raised print and subsequently the manual alphabet; Sullivan opted for the manual alphabet. But in 1890, Keller's next teacher, Sarah Fuller, took a different approach. She began teaching her to lip-read – touching her hand to the speaker's face – and to speak. This was a teaching method which aimed to integrate deaf people into society. Although it had a positive side, it also came to be seen as a way of making disability invisible. So while Keller was eager to communicate with the hearing world, she later criticised Fuller's approach; Sullivan's methods, she argued, were closer to the usual way children acquire language, and signing was a language in its own right.
Meanwhile, Sullivan's success had been widely publicised. The heroic Helen Keller was born: the first biographies appeared before their subject was 10 years old. The real Keller became an able scholar, attending a school for the deaf, then a mainstream preparatory school (equivalent to a sixth-form college) and Radcliffe, where she wrote her life story for the Ladies' Home Journal.
The radical connection.At Radcliffe, she met John Macy, a young lecturer and journalist. Macy assisted Keller and became a close friend to her and Sullivan. In 1905, after Keller graduated, Macy married Sullivan; the three lived together until the marriage broke up in 1913. The couple never divorced; Annie lived with Keller until her death in 1936. For her part, Keller had an affair with a radical journalist, Peter Fagan, in 1916; plans to marry were thwarted by the opposition of Sullivan and Keller's family.
Macy, a socialist, introduced Keller to radical books by authors such as Henry David Thoreau, William James, HG Wells and Karl Marx. Following her success in the Ladies' Home Journal, Keller became a campaigning journalist. She wrote about childhood blindness and its associations with poverty and venereal disease – a taboo subject. She spoke in favour of contraception; Margaret Sanger, founder of the Planned Parenthood movement, was a personal friend. Keller was a founder member of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920; in 1916 she sent a donation to the recently founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a bold act for a white Southern lady. She also studied Swedenborg and joined the Swedenborgian New Church
Red Keller.
Keller was not simply a high-minded reformer – she was also a revolutionary. She joined the Socialist Party of the USA in 1909 and the anarcho-syndicalist union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1912. Keller opposed US entry into the First World War and toured the country calling for American neutrality. She was critical of the Suffragettes ('What good can votes do when ten-elevenths of the land of Great Britain belongs to 200,000?') and dismissed the prospect of reform: 'It is the workers themselves who must secure freedom for themselves. Nothing can be gained by political action.'
After 1913, Keller and Sullivan devoted themselves to journalism and public speaking. They made a – disastrous – film in 1918, and spent four years in vaudeville, presenting a potted version of Keller's story and taking questions from the audience: 'Who are the three greatest men of our time?' 'Lenin, Edison and Charlie Chaplin.'
Campaigner for the blind.In 1924, Keller joined the recently founded American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) as a fundraiser. Funded by well-to-do Republican circles, the AFB's achievements included unifying the diverse systems of Braille then in use.
While this charitable role ended Keller's political activities, she retained radical sympathies. In 1955 she caused controversy by sending birthday greetings to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a Communist and former IWW organiser; Flynn was serving a two-year prison sentence, having been arrested during a Cold War crackdown on the Communist Party. There was a storm of protest; Keller had to write to 28 AFB donors, disavowing Communist sympathies.
Keller died in 1967. She is buried alongside Sullivan at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC – an American hero whose real life has been largely forgotten.
Helen Keller.
www.swedenborg.net/arcana2000/newstuff/keller/keller.html
Introduction to Keller's spiritual beliefs.
A-Z to Deafblindness.
www.deafblind.com
Award-winning site from James Gallagher offers an introduction to deafblindness
from a personal perspective. It includes a practical guide to the Deafblind
Manual Alphabet and a comprehensive list of services available for deafblind
people.
Yahoo Group – Disability Awareness.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/disability-awareness
World wide discussion group
British Deaf Association.
www.britishdeafassociation.org.uk/
News, online resources and links from the BDA.
Deafblindness Web resources.
www.deafblind.com/deafblnd.html
www.deafblind.co.uk/
Two huge collections of links to web resources for the deafblind.
Defiantly Deaf.
dww.deafworldweb.org/pub/d/nytimes.html
Why some deaf people wish to stay that way.
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (Macmillan, 1903) £2.95.
The 22-year-old Keller's first essay in autobiography.
Keller's 1929 memoir Midstream and her 1938 Journals are out of print.
Helen Keller by Dorothy Herrman (University of Chicago Press, 1999)
£11.50.
Biography which focuses mainly on Helen's personal relationships.
Helen and Teacher: The story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy
by Joseph P Lash (Addison Wesley, 1997) £12.50.
This biography follows the lives of the two women, from Sullivan's childhood in an almshouse in the 1860s, through decades of international fame to Keller's death.
Forbidden Signs: American culture and the campaign against sign language,
1847–1920 by Douglas C Baynton (Chicago, 1998) £9.50.
History of the campaign by Alexander Graham Bell and others to suppress the use of sign language among deaf people.
Deaf in America: Voices from a culture by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries
(Harvard, 1990) £9.95.
The authors argue that deafness is a culture, mediated through sign language.
Deaf-Blind Infants and Children: a developmental guide by JM McInnes
and JA Treffry (University of Toronto Press, 1993) £13.50.
A practical reference guide for teachers, parents and professionals working or living with children who are both deaf and blind. It provides day-to-day guidance and suggestions about techniques and methods for assessing children with multi-sensory loss and for devising programmes to help them.
Education of Dual Sensory Impaired Children by David Etheridge (David
Fulton, 1995) £17.
This book examines the issues faced by children with visual and hearing impairments, concentrating on assessment, communication, sensory stimulation and the importance of parents and families in a child's development.
Hand in Hand: Selected reprints edited by Huebner, Joffee, Prickett,
and Welch (American Foundation for the Blind, 1995) £29.95.
An annotated bibliography on working with students who are deafblind, containing 27 journal articles accompanied by a description of more than 160 important print and audio-visual resources and information on how to get them.
Independence Without Sight or Sound by Dona Sauerburger (American Foundation
for the Blind, 1993) £35.95.
This book provides a wealth of insights, strategies, and techniques for how to communicate and feel comfortable with deafblind clients, colleagues and acquaintances.
Teaching Children Who Are Deafblind edited by Aitken, Buultjens,
Clark, Eyre and Pease (David Fulton, 2000) £18.
A practical manual written by professionals from a variety of backgrounds, looking at the key issues of communication, curriculum, teaching and learning, and personal and social development.
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (Longman, 1996)
£21.99.
The history of the US from below – includes an account of the rise
and fall of the IWW.
Deaf Century (Channel 4, 1999) £1.
Booklet that traces the history of deaf people in the UK from the dark
days of the 1900s through struggles for equal opportunities and the recognition
of British Sign Language to the current debate over cochlear implants.
To order a copy, send a cheque or postal order for £1 (made payable
to Channel 4 Television) to Deaf Century, PO Box 4000, Manchester, M60
3LL.
Deafblind UK.
100 Bridge Street
Peterborough PE1 1DY
Tel: 01733 358100
Fax: 01733 358356
E-mail: info@deafblind.org.uk
Website: www.deafblind.org.uk
Contact for information about awareness-raising campaigns, participation in national developmental/lobbying groups and for advice on dual sensory loss. Also provide rehabilitation services and training in touch-based communication systems for deafblind people.
Sense.
11-13 Clifton Terrace
London N4 3SR
Tel: 020 7272 7774
Textphone: 020 7272 9648
Fax: 020 7272 6012
E-mail: enquiries@sense.org.uk
Website: www.sense.org.uk
National charity supporting people who are both deaf and blind, their families, carers and professionals. Contact for information about the services they provide as well as free factsheets and publications.
Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).
224 Great Portland Street
London W1N 6AA
Helpline: 0845 766 9999 (Mondays to Fridays 10am-5pm)
Fax: 020 7388 2034
E-mail: rnib@rnib.org.uk
Website: www.rnib.org.uk
Offer a wide range of services and support to anyone with a serious sight problem. Contact for information and advice on education and employment issues, and advocacy services.
Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID).
19-23 Featherstone Street
London EC1Y 8SL
Helpline: 0808 808 0123 (Mondays to Fridays 9am-5pm)
Textphone: 0808 808 9000 (Mondays to Fridays 9am-5pm)
Fax: 020 7296 8199
E-mail: helpline@rnid.org.uk
Website: www.rnid.org.uk
Contact for free confidential and impartial information on a range of subjects including employment, equipment, legislation, benefits and many issues relating to deafness and hearing loss.
Royal Association in Aid of Deaf people (RAD).
Head office
Walsingham Road
Colchester
Essex CO2 7BP
Tel: 01206 509509
Fax: 01206 769755
Text: 01206 577090
Videophone: 01206 710064
E-mail: info@royaldeaf.org.uk
E-mail: rad.interpreting@dial.pipex.com
Website: www.royaldeaf.org.uk
RAD strives to meet the individual needs of profoundly deaf children and adults and deafblind people. Contact for information and advice about the range of services offered, including deafblind interpreting services.
Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP).
Durham University Science Park
Block 4, Stockton Road
Durham DH1 3UZ
Tel: 0191 383 1155
Fax: 0191 383 7914
Textphone: 0191 383 7915
E-mail: durham@cacdp.demon.co.uk
Website: www.cacdp.demon.co.uk
Contact for information and free factsheets about communication between deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind and hearing people. Also offer accredited courses in British Sign Language (BSL) and other forms of communication used by deaf people.
Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP).
London Office
Rooms 18/19, 1st Floor
London Fruit and Wool Exchange
Brushfield Street
London E1 6EX
Tel: 020 7422 0500
Contact for information about courses, curricula and examinations currently
being developed in Hands-on Signing, Visual Frame and Keyboard Interpreting
and Receptive Skills.
Hearing Concern (The British Association of the Hard of Hearing).
7-11 Armstrong Road
London W3 7JL
Textphone: 020 8742 9151
Helpdesk: 0845 0744600 (Mondays to Fridays 10am-4pm)
Fax: 020 8742 9043
E-mail: hearingconcern@hearingconcern.com
Website: www.hearingconcern.com
Hearing Concern campaigns on behalf of its client group and promotes awareness of the communication needs of deaf and hard of hearing people. Contact for advice and support on issues related to hearing loss. Also publish a quarterly membership magazine, price £12.50.
Forest Bookshop.
8 Crucible Close
Mushet Industrial Estate
Coleford
Gloucestershire GL16 8RF
Tel/textphone: 01594 833858
Videophone: 01594 833507
E-mail: help@forestbooks.com
Website: www.ForestBooks.com
Specialist in books on deafness, sign language and deaf issues, with more than 1,000 books, videos and CD-ROMs in stock.
Produced to accompany The Real Helen Keller, produced by Redweather Productions, first screened on Channel 4 in December 2000.
Writer: Phil Edwards
Project manager: Sarah Woodley
Editor: Aleks Sierz
Web designer: Alan (Fred) Pipes.
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