The Story of My Life
written for them. It has been truly said that Mr. Hutton has the faculty
of bringing out in every one the best thoughts and kindest sentiments.
One does not need to read "A Boy I Knew" to understand him--the most
generous, sweet-natured boy I ever knew, a good friend in all sorts of
weather, who traces the footprints of love in the life of dogs as well
as in that of his fellowmen.
Mrs. Hutton is a true and tried friend. Much that I hold sweetest, much
that I hold most precious, I owe to her. She has oftenest advised
and helped me in my progress through college. When I find my work
particularly difficult and discouraging, she writes me letters that make
me feel glad and brave; for she is one of those from whom we learn that
one painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.
Mr. Hutton introduced me to many of his literary friends, greatest of
whom are Mr. William Dean Howells and Mark Twain. I also met Mr. Richard
Watson Gilder and Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman. I also knew Mr. Charles
Dudley Warner, the most delightful of story-tellers and the most beloved
friend, whose sympathy was so broad that it may be truly said of him,
he loved all living things and his neighbour as himself. Once Mr. Warner
brought to see me the dear poet of the woodlands--Mr. John Burroughs.
They were all gentle and sympathetic and I felt the charm of their
manner as much as I had felt the brilliancy of their essays and poems.
I could not keep pace with all these literary folk as they glanced from
subject to subject and entered into deep dispute, or made conversation
sparkle with epigrams and happy witticisms. I was like little Ascanius,
who followed with unequal steps the heroic strides of Aeneas on his
march toward mighty destinies. But they spoke many gracious words to me.
Mr. Gilder told me about his moonlight journeys across the vast desert
to the Pyramids, and in a letter he wrote me he made his mark under his
signature deep in the paper so that I could feel it. This reminds me
that Dr. Hale used to give a personal touch to his letters to me by
pricking his signature in braille. I read from Mark Twain's lips one
or two of his good stories. He has his own way of thinking, saying and
doing everything. I feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake. Even
while he utters his cynical wisdom in an indescribably droll voice, he
makes you feel that his heart is a tender Iliad of human sympathy.
There are a host of other interesting people I met in New York: Mrs.
Mary Mapes Dodge, the beloved editor of St. Nicholas, and Mrs. Riggs
(Kate Douglas Wiggin), the sweet author of "Patsy." I received from them
gifts that have the gentle concurrence of the heart, books containing
their own thoughts, soul-illumined letters, and photographs that I love
to have described again and again. But there is not space to mention
all my friends, and indeed there are things about them hidden behind the
wings of cherubim, things too sacred to set forth in cold print. It is
with hesitancy that I have spoken even of Mrs. Laurence Hutton.
I shall mention only two other friends. One is Mrs. William Thaw, of
Pittsburgh, whom I have often visited in her home, Lyndhurst. She is
always doing something to make some one happy, and her generosity and
wise counsel have never failed my teacher and me in all the years we
have known her.
To the other friend I am also deeply indebted. He is well known for the
powerful hand with which he guides vast enterprises, and his wonderful
abilities have gained for him the respect of all. Kind to every one, he
goes about doing good, silent and unseen. Again I touch upon the circle
of honoured names I must not mention; but I would fain acknowledge his
generosity and affectionate interest which make it possible for me to go
to college.
Thus it is that my friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand
ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges,
and enabled me to walk serene and happy in the shadow cast by my
deprivation.
II. LETTERS(1887-1901)
II. LETTERS(1887-1901)
INTRODUCTION
Helen Keller's letters are important, not only as a supplementary
story of her life, but as a demonstration of her growth in
thought and expression--the growth which in itself has made her
distinguished.
These letters are, however, not merely remarkable as the
productions of a deaf and blind girl, to be read with wonder and
curiosity; they are good letters almost from the first. The best
passages are those in which she talks about herself, and gives
her world in terms of her experience of it. Her views on the
precession of the equinoxes are not important, but most important
are her accounts of what speech meant to her, of how she felt the
statues, the dogs, the chickens at the poultry show, and how she
stood in the aisle of St. Bartholomew's and felt the organ
rumble. Those are passages of which one would ask for more. The
reason they are comparatively few is that all her life she has
been trying to be "like other people," and so she too often
describes things not as they appear to her, but as they appear to
one with eyes and ears.
One cause for the excellence of her letters is the great number
of them. They are the exercises which have trained her to write.
She has lived at different times in different parts of the
country, and so has been separated from most of her friends and
relatives. Of her friends, many have been distinguished people,
to whom--not often, I think, at the sacrifice of spontaneity--she
has felt it necessary to write well. To them and to a few friends
with whom she is in closest sympathy she writes with intimate
frankness whatever she is thinking about. Her naive retelling of
a child's tale she has heard, like the story of "Little Jakey,"
which she rehearses for Dr. Holmes and Bishop Brooks, is charming
and her grave paraphrase of the day's lesson in geography or
botany, her parrot-like repetition of what she has heard, and her
conscious display of new words, are delightful and instructive;
for they show not only what she was learning, but how, by putting
it all into letters, she made the new knowledge and the new words
her own.
So these selections from Miss Keller's correspondence are made
with two purposes--to show her development and to preserve the
most entertaining and significant passages from several hundred
letters. Many of those written before 1892 were published in the
reports of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. All letters up
to that year are printed intact, for it is legitimate to be
interested in the degree of skill the child showed in writing,
even to details of punctuation; so it is well to preserve a
literal integrity of reproduction. From the letters after the
year 1892 I have culled in the spirit of one making an anthology,
choosing the passages best in style and most important from the
point of view of biography. Where I have been able to collate the
original letters I have preserved everything as Miss Keller wrote
it, punctuation, spelling, and all. I have done nothing but
select and cut.
The letters are arranged in chronological order. One or two
letters from Bishop Brooks, Dr. Holmes, and Whittier are put
immediately after the letters to which they are replies. Except
for two or three important letters of 1901, these selections
cease with the year 1900. In that year Miss Keller entered
college. Now that she is a grown woman, her mature letters should
be judged like those of any other person, and it seems best that
no more of her correspondence be published unless she should
become distinguished beyond the fact that she is the only
well-educated deaf and blind person in the world.
LETTERS (1887-1901)
Miss Sullivan began to teach Helen Keller on March 3rd, 1887.
Three months and a half after the first word was spelled into her
hand, she wrote in pencil this letter
TO HER COUSIN ANNA, MRS. GEORGE T. TURNER
[Tuscumbia, Alabama, June 17, 1887.]
helen write anna george will give helen apple simpson will shoot
bird jack will give helen stick of candy doctor will give mildred
medicine mother will make mildred new dress
[No signature]
Twenty-five days later, while she was on a short visit away from
home, she wrote to her mother. Two words are almost illegible,
and the angular print slants in every direction.
TO MRS. KATE ADAMS KELLER
[Huntsville, Alabama, July 12, 1887.]
Helen will write mother letter papa did give helen medicine
mildred will sit in swing mildred did kiss helen teacher did give
helen peach george is sick in bed george arm is hurt anna did
give helen lemonade dog did stand up.
conductor did punch ticket papa did give helen drink of water in
car
carlotta did give helen flowers anna will buy helen pretty new
hat helen will hug and kiss mother helen will come home
grandmother does love helen
good-by
[No signature.]
By the following September Helen shows improvement in fulness of
construction and more extended relations of thought.
TO THE BLIND GIRLS AT THE PERKINS INSTITUTION IN SOUTH BOSTON
[Tuscumbia, September, 1887.]
Helen will write little blind girls a letter Helen and teacher
will come to see little blind girls Helen and teacher will go in
steam car to boston Helen and blind girls will have fun blind
girls can talk on fingers Helen will see Mr anagnos Mr anagnos
will love and kiss Helen Helen will go to school with blind girls
Helen can read and count and spell and write like blind girls
mildred will not go to boston Mildred does cry prince and jumbo
will go to boston papa does shoot ducks with gun and ducks do
fall in water and jumbo and mamie do swim in water and bring
ducks out in mouth to papa Helen does play with dogs Helen does
ride on horseback with teacher Helen does give handee grass in
hand teacher does whip handee to go fast Helen is blind Helen
will put letter in envelope for blind girls good-by
HELEN KELLER
A few weeks later her style is more nearly correct and freer in
movement. She improves in idiom, although she still omits
articles and uses the "did" construction for the simple past.
This is an idiom common among children.
TO THE BLIND GIRLS AT THE PERKINS INSTITUTION
[Tuscumbia, October 24, 1887.]
dear little blind girls
I will write you a letter I thank you for pretty desk I did write
to mother in memphis on it mother and mildred came home wednesday
mother brought me a pretty new dress and hat papa did go to
huntsville he brought me apples and candy I and teacher will come
to boston and see you nancy is my doll she does cry I do rock
nancy to sleep mildred is sick doctor will give her medicine to
make her well. I and teacher did go to church sunday mr. lane did
read in book and talk Lady did play organ. I did give man money
in basket. I will be good girl and teacher will curl my hair
lovely. I will hug and kiss little blind girls mr. anagnos will
come to see me.
good-by
HELEN KELLER
TO MR. MICHAEL ANAGNOS, DIRECTOR OF THE PERKINS INSTITUTION
[Tuscumbia, November, 1887.]
dear mr. anagnos I will write you a letter. I and teacher did
have pictures. teacher will send it to you. photographer does
make pictures. carpenter does build new houses. gardener does dig
and hoe ground and plant vegetables. my doll nancy is sleeping.
she is sick. mildred is well uncle frank has gone hunting deer.
we will have venison for breakfast when he comes home. I did ride
in wheel barrow and teacher did push it. simpson did give me
popcorn and walnuts. cousin rosa has gone to see her mother.
people do go to church sunday. I did read in my book about fox