Bookathon Bonus - The Miracle Worker

I'm reading biographies of blind people for the rest of Bookathon of which American Helen Keller (1880-1968) was one of the most famous. I recommend this one to find out more.

Helen Keller - A life by Dorothy Herman

 I didn't know much about deaf-blind Helen Keller other than her portrayal in the movie The Miracle Worker where she was played by young Patty Duke. I didn't know what she was like as an adult, so this biography satisfied my curiousity, it was very well researched. It explored her family background, her devotion to Annie Sullivan who was also partially blind and lived with Helen for the rest of her life and whom Helen called 'Teacher', and her other relationships too after Annie died.

Helen lived into her 80s. I learned that Annie was the driving force behind her intellectual pursuits, Helen got into college and graduated, and had a mind of her own, she wrote books, she learned to speak although this was not perfect, she starred in a Hollywood movie called Deliverance of her own life, the duo were stars of Vaudeville, lecture tours and the chautaqua circuit as an advocate and activist. Helen met all the famous people of her day including Mark Twain and Alexander Graham Bell. She was patronised but also dependent on philanthropists, but many were unaware of her radical political views, which some of the Blind Foundation tried to suppress.

Helen also wrote many books about her life and experience as a deaf-blind person. To many she seemed a saint. In the book it was emphasised what a great beauty she was, in that she was attractive and photogenic, so that helped. She was honored and feted in her lifetime. However it seems her dependency did come with a great cost, Annie's life -- and this book explores that symbiotic relationship, that few deaf-blind people have today because they aren't usually dependent on just one person. I think that bond she had with Annie from when she was a child meant the world to her. Her own flesh and blood family, on the other hand, remained distant.

I found this bio really interesting. Ironically later in life Annie's eyes failed her and she did go blind. 

 Annie Sullivan to me was a true heroine and friend to Helen Keller and few people won't be touched by how Helen Keller learned to read words for the first time by her experience with the water pump and Annie writing the word for water in the palm of Helen's hands. As with Louis Braille, get your hands on these books and read. 🙌