Available in several editions, including Braille and audio, this autobiography was first published in 1903 and documented the first 22 years of her life. Helen dedicated the book to Alexander Graham Bell, whose work with the deaf she credited with her ability to speak. It was edited by John Macy, a young Harvard instructor who became the husband of Anne Sullivan.
Published in 1908 and Out of print for nearly a century, The World I Live In is Helen Keller's most personal and intellectually adventurous work—one that transforms our appreciation of her extraordinary achievements. Here this preternaturally gifted deaf and blind young woman closely describes her sensations and the workings of her imagination, while making the pro-vocative argument that the whole spectrum of the senses lies open to her through the medium of language. Standing in the line of the works of Emerson and Thoreau, The World I Live In is a profoundly suggestive exercise in self-invention, and a true, rediscovered classic of American literature. Goodreads
A reflection on her religious life published in 1927, and largely a tribute to Emmanuel Swedenborg, (1688-1772), the Swedish theologian she claimed as the most important influence on her spiritual journey.
Also available in large print.
Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan were almost inseparable for fifty years, from their meeting when Helen was six until Anne's death in 1936. Their relationship was by far the closest and most defining relationship either ever had, not always happy but never suffering from a lack of love and complete devotion. This is a memoir of her beloved Teacher, published in 1955.
" My life] is so rich with blessings--an immense capacity of enjoyment, books, and beloved friends. . . . Most earnestly I pray the dear Heavenly Father that I may sometime make myself far more worthy of the love shown to me than I am now."
--April 22, 1900 letter from Helen Keller to John Hitz, AFB
Helen Keller: Selected Writings collects Keller's personal letters, political writings, speeches, and excerpts of her published materials from 1887 to 1968. The book also includes an introductory essay by Kim E. Nielsen, headnotes to each document, and a selected bibliography of work by and about Keller. The majority of the letters and some prints, all drawn from the Helen Keller Archives at the American Foundation for the Blind in New York, are being published for the first time.
Literature, education, advocacy, politics, religion, travel: the many interests of Helen Keller culminate in this book and are reflected in her spirited narration. Also portrayed are the individuals Keller inspired and took inspiration from, including her teacher Annie Sullivan, her family, and others with whom she formed friendships throughout the course of her life. Goodreads
Full title: Our duties to the blind: A paper presented by Helen Keller at the first annual meeting of the Massachusetts Association for Promoting the Interests of the Adult Blind, January fifth, 1904.
A memoir published in 1929, when Helen was 49 years of age. She discusses her favorite writers, personal struggles, her dedication to social justice, learning of finances and making a living, and the retirement of her teacher, Anne Sullivan.
A short meditation on grief published in 1929, We Bereaved contains two frequently printed quotes:
“We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world--the company of those who have known suffering.”
“What we have once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us,”
"[Since] the death of Anne Sullivan Macy many people have asked anxiously how Helen Keller -- "blind and deaf in very truth" -- was able to meet the conditions of this triply stricken life; in losing Mrs. Macy she lost eyes and ears and lifelong comradeship. Helen Keller's journal from November 1936 to April 1937, provides, among other things, the reply to these questionings. It is a remarkable book. And it is that not only in the sense in which everything about Helen Keller's mastery of life is remarkable but in a deeper and more personal sense of its own. It will be of interest, naturally, to every one who has followed the progress of Helen Keller's life in her other books; but it will be of interest also to men and women who have not read her earlier writings." New York Times review, June 5, 1938"
After Helen Keller's death, Ray Silverman, a Swedenborgian minister, edited and annotated her 1927 book My Religion. It was re-released as Light in My Darkness. No substantive changes were made to her original text, though some factual errors were corrected and the organization of the original text was changed.
"She campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism & other radical causes. She was as an advocate for the disabiled, a suffragist, a pacifist, an opponent of Woodrow Wilson, a radical socialist & a birth control supporter. In 1915 she & George Kessler founded the Helen Keller Internat'l organization, devoted to research in vision, health & nutrition. In 1920 she helped to found the ACLU. She traveled to over 40 countries. She met every President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson & was friends with famous figures like Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin & Mark Twain. Keller & Twain were both considered radicals at the beginning of the 20th century. As a consequence, their political views have been forgotten or glossed over. She was a member of the Socialist Party & campaigned & wrote in support of the working class from 1909 to 1921. She supported SP candidate Eugene V. Debs in each of his campaigns for the presidency. Before reading Progress & Poverty, she was already a socialist who believed that Georgism was a good step in the right direction. She later wrote of finding "in Henry George’s philosophy a rare beauty & power of inspiration, & a splendid faith in the essential nobility of human nature."... In Why I Became an IWW, she explained that her motivation for activism came in part from her concern about blindness & other disabilities. She also cited the 1912 strike of textile workers in Lawrence, MA for instigating her support of socialism."