Helen Keller was born a healthy child. When Helen was 19 months old, she became ill with what was known as acute congestion of the brain and stomach; this is now known as scarlet fever. As a result, she was left blind, deaf, and mute. For many of her earlier years Helen lived in darkness

Aside from being one of the earliest blind, deaf, and mute person to become active in society, Helen was also an author. Her first autobiography, The Story of My Life, was published in 1902 with the help of Ann Sullivan and John Macy. The Story of My Life became a world-wide best-seller and was translated into fifty languages. Before she had even graduated college in 1903, Helen wrote a 7,500-word essay called Optimism. Optimism reflected the goodness that Helen saw in life.

A large amount of Helen's accomplishments would not have been possible if it weren't for her mother and father. Her parents read about Samuel Gridley Howe's accomplishments with the deaf and blind at the Perkins Institution in Boston. With this knowledge, her father brought his daughter to Alexander Graham Bell, a family friend who was well known in society. Bell was so fascinated by six year old Helen that he recommended that she contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. Anne Sullivan, who was also a recent Perkins graduate, was suggested to be Helen's teacher by Michael Anagnos. Michael Anagnos was the professor of Samuel Gridley Howe, a gentleman who was having great success working with the deaf and blind at Perkins (Notable 389).

again wrote with such lyric power," (Notable 390). Also, a collection of socialist essays entitled, Out of the Dark, was published in 1913.

After the earlier successes, Helen and her teacher both left for the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston in 1888 to provide Helen with a more formal education. Helen and Miss Sullivan moved to New York in 1894 in order for Helen to study at the Wright Humason School for the deaf. Anne raised money so that her student could attend the Cambridge School for Young Ladies. In 1896, Helen began her studies at Cambridge which included French, Greek, literature, mathematics, geography, and history. She then went on to attend Radcliffe College in 1980. In 1904, she graduated cum laude and received her AB Degree (Notable 390).

with very few ways to communicate with others around her. Obviously her attempts were not always successful. When she failed to communicate she would throw fits and have outburst that would upset not only her, but her family as well. Because of these violent fits, she appeared to be a very unruly child, but underneath all of the tragedy was a future inspirational figure that

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Approximate Word count = 1611
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)