by Dorothy Herrmann
Ms. Herrmann's biography was critically acclaimed as the definitive general work on Helen Keller's life when it was published. Ms. Herrmann had access to numerous papers and primary resources that are unfortunately no longer available as they were housed in the World Trade Center and were destroyed on September 11, 2001. (APLS)
"Fascinating. . . . Stripping away decades of well-meaning sentimentality, Herrmann presents a pair of strong-willed women, who struggled to build their own lives while never forgetting their dependence on each other."—Ron Charles, Christian Science Monitor
"Herrmann's portrait of Keller is both fully embodied and unflinchingly candid."—Mary Loeffelholz, Boston Sunday Globe
"This well-proportioned biography of the deaf and blind girl who became a great American crusader rescues its subject from the shackles of sainthood without destroying her as an American hero."—Dennis Drabelle, Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Perhaps the most intimate biography [of Helen Keller]. [Herrmann] gives her back her sexuality [and] imbues her with a true humanity. . . . Helen Keller: A Life has some of the texture and the dramatic arc of a good novel."—Dinitia Smith, New York Times.
by Joseph P. Lash
"At the heart of this wonderful biography is the relationship between two great American women whose lives were bound together for all time. Joseph P. Lash, author of Eleanor and Franklin, follows this gifted, passionate, and humanly flawed pair for 100 years, from Annie's childhood in an almshouse in the 1860s, through decades of international fame, to Helen's death in 1968. Among the vivid characters associated with their lives are Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Charlie Chaplin, and Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. " Goodreads
by Laurie Lawlor
"Lawlor's use of liberal quotes from Keller's own writing and objective analysis of both Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, offer insight into her subject's character and experience. This well-researched biography places Keller squarely in the context of her time. As the subtitle proclaims, Lawlor paints a positive portrait of Keller but also unveils her radical political beliefs and persistent rebellious streak. Beginning with Keller's birth in Tuscumbia, Ala., in 1880 and the illness that caused her to lose her sight and hearing at 19 months, the author sets the stage for the bright, frustrated child who "became almost intolerably spoiled and bossy." Lawlor includes famous episodes... but also delves into more complex issues, such as Keller's interdependent relationship with Sullivan and Keller's constant battle with finances. But throughout the volume, the author captures Keller's zeal, whether bravely venturing into the ocean or "even at eighty [continuing] to do her best to topple her saintly image." Publisher's Weekly (excerpt)
by Kim Nielsen
"Several decades after her death in 1968, Helen Keller remains one of the most widely recognized women of the twentieth century. But the fascinating story of her vivid political life—particularly her interest in radicalism and anti-capitalist activism—has been largely overwhelmed by the sentimentalized story of her as a young deaf-blind girl.
Keller had many lives indeed. Best known for her advocacy on behalf of the blind, she was also a member of the socialist party, an advocate of women's suffrage, a defender of the radical International Workers of the World, and a supporter of birth control—and she served as one of the nation's most effective but unofficial international ambassadors. In spite of all her political work, though, Keller rarely explored the political dimensions of disability, adopting beliefs that were often seen as conservative, patronizing, and occasionally repugnant. Under the wing of Alexander Graham Bell, a controversial figure in the deaf community who promoted lip-reading over sign language, Keller became a proponent of oralism, thereby alienating herself from others in the deaf community who believed that a rich deaf culture was possible through sign language. But only by distancing herself from the deaf community was she able to maintain a public image as a one-of-a-kind miracle.
Using analytic tools and new sources, Kim E. Nielsen's political biography of Helen Keller has many lives, teasing out the motivations for and implications of her political and personal revolutions to reveal a more complex and intriguing woman than the Helen Keller we thought we knew." Goodreads
by Catherine Owens Peare
"A biography of the blind and deaf woman who rose above her physical disabilities to international renown and who helped other handicapped persons live fuller lives." [from dust jacket]
by Georgina Kleege
"As a young blind girl, Georgina Kleege repeatedly heard the refrain, “Why can’t you be more like Helen Keller?” Kleege’s resentment culminates in her book Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller, an ingenious examination of the life of this renowned international figure using 21st-century sensibilities. Kleege’s absorption with Keller originated as an angry response to the ideal of a secular saint, which no real blind or deaf person could ever emulate. However, her investigation into the genuine person revealed that a much more complex set of characters and circumstances shaped Keller’s life.
Blind Rage employs an adroit form of creative nonfiction to review the critical junctures in Keller’s life. The simple facts about Helen Keller are well-known: how Anne Sullivan taught her deaf-blind pupil to communicate and learn; her impressive career as a Radcliffe graduate and author; her countless public appearances in various venues, from cinema to vaudeville, to campaigns for the American Foundation for the Blind. But Kleege delves below the surface to question the perfection of this image. Through the device of her letters, she challenges Keller to reveal her actual emotions, the real nature of her long relationship with Sullivan, with Sullivan’s husband, and her brief engagement to Peter Fagan. Kleege’s imaginative dramatization, distinguished by her depiction of Keller’s command of abstract sensations, gradually shifts in perspective from anger to admiration. Blind Rage criticizes the Helen Keller myth for prolonging an unrealistic model for blind people, yet it appreciates the individual who found a practical way to live despite the restrictions of her myth." Goodreads
by Van Wyck Brooks
"Without sentimental hyperbole, this portrait conveys the challenge of a life which denied all intellectual and many physical confines. Much of the material in based on Helen Keller's own story but Brooks, who knew her well in later years, fills in personal marginalia. The familiar events are here but perhaps what emerges clearly is the enormous curiosity and vitality, the extraordinary perceptions, and the people who shared her world."-- Kirkus Reviews
by J.W. and Anne Tibble
"A nice and thorough storytelling about Helen Keller's life and every little aspect it may include. Didn't love it, but didn't dislike it either. Was somehow expecting a more critical approach, from a linguistic point of view. It really felt like a report with hardly any analysis or insight." Goodreads
by Helen Keller with additional material by Ray Silverman
A reissue of Helen Keller's work My Religion with annotations and editing by Swedenborgian scholar and pastor Ray Silverman.
