The Story of My Life

About the book

Helen Keller describes childhood, the arrival of Anne Sullivan, and the expanding possibilities that communication and education brought into her life. Her recollections give close attention to touch, movement, reading, friendship, and the emotional significance of understanding a new word or idea. The volume also contains letters and a supplementary account of her education, including material from Sullivan, allowing readers to encounter the process through more than one voice. Keller's narrative is especially interested in the pleasure of intellectual connection rather than only in the obstacles observers might expect to define her. The supporting materials broaden the account while reminding readers to distinguish her own testimony from explanations offered by others. Together they present learning as sustained work shared between particular people.

• Language
• Education
• Communication and relationship

Why read it

For the vivid attention to how language opens relationships, ideas, and ways of describing experience.

Autobiography, letters, and educational account · English text