Helen Keller, page 66
In Martha Graham’s studio, c. 1954. Courtesy of Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.
With Prime Minister Nehru, February 27, 1955. Getty Images.
At the White House, April 8, 1961. Courtesy of Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.
On Martha’s Vineyard, c. 1961. Courtesy of Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.
Notes
In the notes below, the reference numbers denote page and line of the hardcover edition (the line count includes headings but not blank lines). References to Shakespeare are keyed to The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974), and biblical references to the King James Version. For further information about Keller’s life and works, and references to other studies, see: Arthur William Blaxall, Helen Keller Under the Southern Cross (Cape Town: Juta & Co., 1952); Nella Braddy, Anne Sullivan Macy: The Story Behind Helen Keller (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran, and Company, 1933); Elizabeth Emerson, Letters from Red Farm: The Untold Story of the Friendship between Helen Keller and Journalist Joseph Edgar Chamberlin (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2021); Dorothy Herrmann, Helen Keller: A Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998); Joseph P. Lash, Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy (New York: Delacorte, 1980); Kim E. Nielsen, The Radical Lives of Helen Keller (New York: New York University Press, 2004); Kim E. Nielsen, Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009); Max Wallace, After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller (New York: Grand Central, 2023).
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
7.23–24 the Volta Bureau . . . the Deaf] A library and research center established in Washington, D.C., in 1887 by Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922).
7.30 “Over the Teacups,”] A collection of the table talk of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894), first published in 1891.
17.10 “the shadows . . . on the rest.”] See the dedication to Robert Louis Stevenson’s collection Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers (1881).
17.32 Lafayette’s] Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834), a French hero of the American Revolution.
18.8 Edward Everett . . . Hale] Edward Everett (1794–1864) was a prominent politician and orator; he served as a Massachusetts governor (1836–40) and senator (1853–54), and as secretary of state (1852–53). His nephew Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909) was a writer, editor, and minister most often remembered for his 1863 short story “The Man Without a Country.”
21.23–24 “the day is ours . . . shown.”] From “Love and Death,” part 4 of The Celestial Passion (1887) by Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909).
28.23 Dr. Howe] Samuel Gridley Howe (1801–1876), founding director, beginning in 1831, of what became known as the Perkins School for the Blind.
29.22 Dr. Chisholm] Julian J. Chisholm (1830–1903), professor of diseases of the eye and ear at the University of Maryland.
34.16 “like Aaron’s rod, with flowers.”] Numbers 17:8.
35.23 “birds and flowers . . . peers.”] See “To the Dandelion” by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), first collected in his 1848 Poems.
36.23–24 “wages open war . . . treacherous claws.”] See Robert Louis Stevenson, “Pan’s Pipes,” first collected in Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers (1881).
43.9–10 “The loveliness of things . . . use.”] See James Russell Lowell’s poem “The Shepherd of King Admetus,” written in 1842.
45.6–7 “The Chambered Nautilus,”] A poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894), first collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858).
51.25–26 when I called Boston . . . Hearts.”] Keller used the phrase in her early memoir “My Story,” published in The Youth’s Companion on January 4, 1894.
55.30–31 “with hark . . . halloo!”] From “The Lady of the Lake” (1810), canto I, by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).
56.12 Black Beauty . . . the book] Black Beauty (1877), a novel by Anna Sewell (1820–1878).
58.15–18 Shrunk and cold . . . earth and sea.] From The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848), part second, by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891).
63.17–19 Isaiah’s prophecy . . . their hands!”] Isaiah 55:12.
65.30–31 “The Freaks of the Frost,”] See “The Frost” by Hannah Flagg Gould (1788–1865), first collected in her 1832 Poems and widely reprinted under various titles, including “Jack Frost” and “The Freaks of the Frost.”
67.29 “Little Lord Fauntleroy,”] A novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924), first published in 1886.
68.40–69.3 The young writer . . . versatility.] See Stevenson’s essay “A College Magazine,” first collected in Memories and Portraits (1887).
69.26–27 “There is no way . . . Stevenson] See Stevenson’s “A College Magazine.”
69.37–38 the publication . . . Ladies’ Home Journal] “The Story of My Life” appeared in The Ladies’ Home Journal in six installments, from April to September 1902.
73.2–3 “man only is interesting to man.”] See Pope’s Essay on Man (1733–34), epistle II: “The proper study of mankind is man.”
76.14 “Le Médecin . . . Athalie.”] Plays by Molière (c. 1622–1673) and Jean Racine (1639–1699), first performed in 1666 and 1691 respectively.
76.24 William Wade] Wade (1837–1912), a manufacturing executive, sent Keller a mastiff puppy in 1889 and later had braille editions of many books prepared for her.
79.23 “Sleepy Hollow”] A village in Westchester County, New York, and the setting of Irving’s story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820).
79.32 John P. Spaulding] Spaulding (1833–1896), the owner of a Boston sugar refinery, was one of Keller’s principal benefactors.
82.14 tares] Weeds.
82.32 Mr. Howells] The novelist and critic William Dean Howells (1837–1920); his house on Concord Avenue is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
90.32 “faded . . . common day.”] See the “Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” by William Wordsworth (1770–1850), collected in his 1807 Poems, in Two Volumes.
93.3–5 “a glimpse . . . stem of time.”] See A Child of Nature (1901) by Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846–1916).
94.18 Bob Acres] A cowardly character in the play The Rivals (1775) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816).
94.33 Huss] Jan Hus (c. 1370–1415), Czech theologian and religious reformer.
97.5 “The Scarlet Letter.”] Novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864), published in 1850.
99.14–15 “The Jungle . . . Animals I Have Known.”] Books of animal stories by Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) and Ernest Thompson Seton (1860–1946), published in 1894 and 1896 respectively.
99.31–32 God can dumbness . . . Time.] From Sidney Lanier’s “Acknowledgment,” first collected in his 1877 Poems.
102.6–7 “things seen . . . eternal.”] 2 Corinthians 4:18.
102.38–40 “there is nothing . . . it will lose.”] See William Dean Howells’s essay “Cervantes,” collected in My Literary Passions (1895).
105.8–9 “large loves and heavenly charities.”] From Sidney Lanier’s poem “Ode to the Johns Hopkins University,” written in 1880.
108.13–16 Even as the roots . . . so do I] From The Cathedral (1870), by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891).
109.9 fighting in the far-away Pacific] The United States and the Philippines were at war from February 1899 to July 1902.
110.30 “phiz”] Face or facial expression.
112.33–34 Barré’s bronzes . . . secrets of the jungle] Probably Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875), famous for his animal sculptures.
113.5–7 O dark . . . hope of day!] From Samson Agonistes (1671) by John Milton (1608–1674).
113.26–29 Miss Ellen Terry . . . Sir Henry Irving . . . kingship] Keller saw Terry (1847–1928) and Irving (1838–1905) in Charles I (1879), by W. G. Willis (1828–1891), in New York in December 1895.
113.35–38 Mr. Jefferson . . . “Rip Van Winkle”] The comic actor Joseph Jefferson III (1829–1905) first adapted Washington Irving’s 1819 story “Rip Van Winkle” for the stage in 1859 and played the character in many stage and silent film versions thereafter.
114.34–36 Elsie Leslie . . . the Pauper.”] Leslie (1881–1966) appeared in Abby Sage Richardson’s stage adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper in Boston in April 1890.
118.9 Bishop Brooks] Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), Episcopal clergyman and writer; he was bishop of Massachusetts from 1891 to 1893.
118.26–27 God in all . . . consoles.] From The Cathedral (1870), by James Russell Lowell.
119.27–28 Break, break . . . O sea!] The opening lines of Tennyson’s “Break, Break, Break,” first published in 1842.
120.9–10 even as they fell . . . prison.] Acts 12:5–7.
122.19–22 Mr. Hutton . . . “A Boy I Knew”] Laurence Hutton (1843–1904) published A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs in 1898.
129.13 St. Bartholomew’s] A New York church; see page 216 in the present volume.
136.20–22 Morrison Heady . . . commendable verses] Heady (1829–1915) was the author of Seen and Heard, Poems or the Like (1869) and The Double Night and Other Poems (1907).
140.25 atze] Possibly 鞋 (xié), shoe in Mandarin.
141.12–13 Mr. Rodocanachi] John M. Rodocanachi (1830–1906), a businessman and longtime Greek consul in Boston.
142.8 Peregrine White] White (1620–1704) was the first child of the English Pilgrims to be born in Massachusetts.
143.20–28 Parlez-vous . . . Je vous aime.] French: Do you speak French? Yes, sir, you have a beautiful hat. Give me a kiss. Greek: I love you. How are you? Well. Greetings. Good day, good night. French: I love you.
155.11 montre] French: watch.
156.35 Palos] Palos de Frontera, Spanish port from which Columbus sailed in 1492.
157.1 “Little Jakey.”] See The Story of Little Jakey (1871) by Helen Aldrich De Kroyft (1818–1915).
165.2 Sara Crewe] Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s (1888), by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924).
167.17 George R. Krehl] Krehl (c. 1856–1903), a London dog breeder, edited The Stock-keeper and Illustrated Kennel News.
167.29 “Enoch Arden,”] A long poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892), first published in 1864.
169.1 SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS] Millais (1829–1896) was a noted English painter, one of the Pre-Raphaelites.
169.15–25 My favorite poet . . . bless her!”] From “A Good Time Going!” (1858) by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894).
172.2 “The School-boy,”] Holmes’s poem of this title was written for the Phillips Academy’s centennial on June 6, 1878.
173.9 ALBERT H. MUNSELL] Munsell (1858–1918), an artist, painted Keller’s portrait in 1892.
177.7 “cold and dark and dreary”] See Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Rainy Day,” collected in Ballads and Other Poems (1842).
178.30 MR. JOHN HITZ] Hitz (1828–1908) helped to establish and was first superintendent of the Volta Bureau.
179.24–27 Silent Worker . . . “distressing”] The Silent Worker, a national newspaper for the deaf published in Trenton, New Jersey, printed a short item on November 24, 1892, titled “Helen Keller Broken Down”; Keller denied this report in a letter dated December 3 and published in the paper on December 22.
179.30–31 my books . . . Mr. Ruskin] Possibly a reference to Ruskin’s Sesame and Lilies (1865), in the first lecture of which (“Of Kings’ Treasuries”) he refers to the “material of riches” to be found in books.
183.1–2 a letter . . . St. Nicholas] See “Helen Keller’s Visit to the World’s Fair,” St. Nicholas, December 1893.
183.35 Dr. Gillett] Philip G. Gillett (1832–1901), superintendent of the Illinois Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.
184.8 Prof. Morse] Edward S. Morse (1838–1925), author of Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings (1885).
186.20 my little story] Keller published “My Story,” an account of her life, in The Youth’s Companion for January 1894.
187.20 Dr. Humason] Thomas A. Humason (1865–1957), founder, with John Dutton Wright (1866–1952), of the Wright-Humason School in New York in 1892.
189.25 Paradeuski] Keller may be thinking of Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941), Polish pianist and politician.
189.36 Mr. Rogers] Henry Huttleston Rogers (1840–1909), an industrialist who made his fortune in oil refining. He helped pay for Keller’s college tuition.
190.23–24 Venicewards . . . new book] Laurence Hutton published Literary Landmarks of Venice in 1896.
191.24–25 “Old Mortality,” “The Castle of Otranto” and “King of No-land.”] Novels by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Horace Walpole (1717–1797), and B. L. Farjeon (1838–1903), published in 1816, 1764, and 1875; Wade had braille editions of these books made for Keller.
192.2 “King Charles the First,”] See note 113.26–29.
192.12 “Ivanhoe.”] Ivanhoe: A Romance (1819), a novel by Sir Walter Scott.
192.16 “Stories from Scottish History,”] Tales of a Grandfather; Being Stories Taken from Scottish History (1828–31), by Sir Walter Scott.
193.11 Mr. Warner, the writer] Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900), coauthor (with Mark Twain) of the novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), and author of many novels and essays.
193.22 “Waiting”] Burroughs (1837–1921), who lived at Slabsides, a cottage in West Park, New York, published “Waiting” in The Liberator on November 4, 1864.
194.13–14 the two sisters . . . Immortal Fountain] See The Immortal Fountain; or, The Travels of Two Sisters to the Fountain of Beauty (1851), by British clergyman Richard Edleston (d. 1887).
194.24 Dr. Crouter’s Institution] A.L.E. Crouter (1846–1925) served as teacher and superintendent for the Philadelphia Institution for the Deaf.
194.27–28 Mr. Banerji . . . Magnat of Paris] Babu Jamini Nath Banerji (1869–1921), who founded a school for the deaf in Calcutta in the 1890s, and Joseph Manus Magnat (1833–1897), an educator of the deaf and author of Cours d’articulation, enseignement de la parole articulée aux sourds-muets (1874).
203.33–34 Kipling’s “Dreaming . . . School?”] Kipling’s poem “Kitchener’s School” was first published in newspapers in December 1898. He is not known to have written a work titled “Dreaming True”; Keller may be referring to his recently collected story “The Brushwood Boy” (The Day’s Work, 1898), which, as was noted in a letter to the editor of The New York Times on December 31, 1898, seems to borrow the idea of “dreaming true” from George du Maurier’s 1891 novel Peter Ibbetson.
207.29 the Sargent pictures] John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) exhibited at Copley Hall in Boston in February and March 1899.
207.37 Mr. Kipling did not die!] Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) suffered a serious case of pneumonia while visiting New York in February 1899; by early March he was reported to be recovering.
215.2 “Columba”] Historical novel by Prosper Mérimée (1803–1870), first published in book form in 1841.
215.32 Colonel Roosevelt] Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1858–1919), governor of New York and future president; he was sometimes referred to by the nickname “Colonel” in recognition of his service in the Spanish-American War.
216.36 paynims] Pagans.
231.12 “a grave editorial”] See “Helen Keller at College,” Boston Evening Transcript, August 7, 1902.
236.26–29 “in one of the magazines . . . her favourite.”] See “In the Public Eye,” Munsey’s Magazine, March 1895.
267.2–3 Perez’s and Sully’s Psychologies] Probably The First Three Years of Childhood by Bernard Pérez (1836–1903), first published in French in 1878, and Outlines of Psychology (1884), Teacher’s Handbook of Psychology (1886), or Studies of Childhood (1896), by James Sully (1842–1923).
269.18 Tophetic] Hellish.
272.23 Viney] Viney Murphy (1857–1919), a nursemaid in the Keller household.
292.26–31 Dugald Stewart . . . the heart.”] See “Some Account of a Boy Born Blind and Deaf, Collected from Authentic Sources of Information, With a Few Remarks and Comments,” first published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1815.
302.25 the tariff] The McKinley Tariff, formally known as the Tariff Act of 1890, dramatically increased import duties; it was politically controversial.
303.26 Colburn’s mental arithmetic] Shorthand title for First Lessons in Intellectual Arithmetic (1821) by Warren Colburn (1793–1833), a popular textbook.
311.18 David’s words . . . my soul.”] Psalms 23:3.
312.7–9 “her mental faculties . . . Zeus,”] From the unsigned item “Helen Keller,––a Second Laura Bridgman,” Fifty-Sixth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, for the Year Ending September 30, 1887 (1888).
351.5–10 Miss Keller’s sketch . . . not a baby.”] See note 186.20.
351.26 Volapük] An artificial language invented by Johann Martin Schleyer (1831–1912), a German Catholic priest, in 1879–80.
351.28 De l’Épée] Charles-Michel de l’Épée (1712–1789), a pioneer of deaf education.
351.29 Philip Nolan] The main character of Edward Everett Hale’s short story “The Man Without a Country,” first published in December 1863. See note 18.8.
351.32 his essay on style] Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859) published an “Essay on Style” in Blackwood’s Magazine in 1840–41.
