The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller; With Her Letters (1887-1901) and a Supplementary Account of Her Education, Including Passages from the Reports and Letters of Her Teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy

Published: Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905

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This book is in three parts. The first two, Miss Keller's story and the extracts from her letters, form a complete account of her life as far as she can give it. Much of her education she cannot explain herself, and since a knowledge of that is necessary to an understanding of what she has written, it was thought best to supplement her autobiography with the reports and letters of her teacher, Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan. The addition of a further account of Miss Keller's personality and achievements may be unnecessary; yet it will help to make clear some of the traits of her character and the nature of the work which she and her teacher have done.

For the third part of the book the Editor is responsible, though all that is valid in it he owes to authentic records and to the advice of Miss Sullivan.

The Editor desires to express his gratitude and the gratitude of Miss Keller and Miss Sullivan to The Ladies' Home Journal and to its editors, Mr. Edward Bok and Mr. William V. Alexander, who have been unfailingly kind and have given for use in this book all the photographs which were taken expressly for the Journal; and the Editor thanks Miss Keller's many friends who have lent him her letters to them and given him valuable information; especially Mrs. Laurence Hutton, who supplied him with her large collection of notes and anecdotes; Mr. John Hitz, Superintendent of the Volta Bureau for the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge relating to the Deaf; and Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins, to whom Miss Sullivan wrote those illuminating letters, the extracts from which give a better idea of her methods with her pupil than anything heretofore published.

Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company have courteously permitted the reprinting of Miss Keller's letter to Dr. Holmes, which appeared in "Over the Teacups," and one of Whittier's letters to Miss Keller. Mr. S. T. Pickard, Whittier's literary executor, kindly sent the original of another letter from Miss Keller to Whittier.

John Albert Macy.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 1, 1903.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Editor's Preface .... Page VII

Section 1:
    Part I. The Story of My Life
    Chapters I-XIV
Section 2:
    Chapters XV-XXIII

Section 3:
    Part II. Introduction to Letters
    Letters (1887-1892)
Section 4:
    Letters (1893-1901)

Section 5:
    Part III. A Supplementary Account of Helen Keller's Life and Education
    Chapter I. The Writing of the Book .... 283
    Chapter II. Personality .... 286
    Chapter III. Education .... 287
Section 6:
    Chapter IV. Speech .... 384
    Chapter V. Literary Style .... 394

Index [not included in WenRoots online edition]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:
Helen Keller and Miss Sullivan .... Frontispiece
"Ivy Green," the Keller Homestead (Showing also the small house where Helen Keller was born) .... 4
Helen Keller at the Age of Seven .... 22
Helen Keller and Jumbo .... 32
Miss Keller and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell .... 76
Miss Keller at Work in Her Study .... 88
Miss Keller and "Phiz" .... 126
Miss Keller, Miss Sullivan, and Mr. Joseph Jefferson .... 130
Miss Keller, Miss Sullivan, and Dr. Edward Everett Hale .... 136
Miss Keller and "Mark Twain" .... 138
In the Study at Cambridge .... 250
Helen Keller in 1899 .... 258
Reading Raised Print .... 292
Miss Sullivan Reading to Miss Keller .... 396