Hellen Keller: A Biography

She was born on June 27, 1880 in a small town in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was born with full sight and hearing.
Her father, Captain Arthur Henley, was a loyal southerner who proudly served in the confederate army during the American Civil War.
Her mother, Kate, was a tall, statuesque blonde with blue eyes. She was twenty years younger than her husband.
She lived in a small, clapboard house built in 1820 by her grandparents.
This family was far from wealthy, with her father earning a living as both a cotton plantation owner and the editor of a weekly newspaper, the “North Alabamian”. Her mother, as well as working on the plantation, would save money by making her own lard, bacon, and ham.
On February of 1822, at nineteen months, she fell ill. To this day her ailment remains a mystery. Doctors called it ‘brain fever’, but now a day, doctors think it might have been scarlet fever of meningitis.
For many days, she was expected to die. Eventually, though, the fever subsided.
Her mother had soon noticed that she failed to respond when the dinner bell rang, or when Kate passed her hand across her face. It became apparent that the illness had left her both blind and deaf.
The following years proved hard for her and her family. She was a very difficult child, smashing dishes and lamps, and terrorizing the whole household with her screaming and temper tantrums.
By the time she turned six, Kate had read in a Charles Dickens book, “American Notes” of the fantastic work that had been done with another deaf- blind mute, Laura Bridgeman, and traveled to a specialist in Baltimore for advice. It turns out that her daughter’s condition was permanent.
Her mother did not give up hope- she thought her daughter could be taught.
They were advised to visit a local expert on problems of deaf children- Alexander Graham Bell, (you may know this man for inventing the telescope). He told them to write to Michael Anagos, director of the Perkins Institute and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. This was when Anne, the miracle worker as they called her, came in.
Anne had lost the majority of her sight as age five. At the age of ten, her mother died and her father deserted her.
In February 1876, she and her brother Jimmie were sent to the poor- house. Anne’s brother died in the poor- house. It was October 1880, before Anne finally went to commerce her education at the Perkins Institute. One summer, during her time at the Institute, she had two operations on her eyes. This allowed her to gain enough sight to be able to read normal print for short periods of time.
Anne graduated from Perkins in 1886 and was offered a job from Michael Anangos to teach Kate and Arthur’s daughter. Although she had no experience in this area, she accepted willingly.
On March 3, 1887, Anne arrived at the house in Tuscumbia, and for the first time met her student. Anne immediately began teaching her to finger spell. The first word she learned was ‘doll’, to signify the gift Anne had brought for her new (and first ever).