Author · 1880 – 1968
Helen Keller
Key Takeaways
- Keller became deaf and blind in infancy but learned to communicate and write.
- She was the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor's degree.
- Her autobiography The Story of My Life inspired readers around the world.
- She campaigned tirelessly for the rights of people with disabilities.
Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing before she was two years old. That she learned to communicate at all was extraordinary; that she became a celebrated author and advocate read around the world was nothing short of revolutionary.
Breaking through
The turning point came when her teacher, Anne Sullivan, spelled the word “water” into her hand at a pump — and the connection between sign and thing suddenly opened the world. Keller went on to read Braille, master several subjects, and become the first deafblind person to earn a college degree in the United States. Her autobiography, The Story of My Life, inspired millions.
Author and activist
Keller wrote many more books and essays and lectured across the globe, all while campaigning for the rights of people with disabilities and helping found the ACLU. A close friend of Mark Twain, who marvelled at her mind, and a forerunner of inspiring memoirists like Maya Angelou and Anne Frank, this author of the modern era changed forever how the world understood disability.
Influence
Keller transformed how the world saw disability, proving through her writing and activism that deafness and blindness need be no barrier to a full intellectual and public life.
Legacy
An international symbol of courage and possibility, she advanced disability rights and remains one of the most admired authors and advocates of her century.
Major Works
- The Story of My Life
- The World I Live In
- Optimism
Connections
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Helen Keller?
Helen Keller (1880–1968) was an American author and activist who, though deaf and blind, became the first deafblind person to earn a college degree and wrote The Story of My Life.
What did Helen Keller write?
She wrote her autobiography The Story of My Life, along with books and essays such as The World I Live In and Optimism, and articles advocating for people with disabilities.
Citations & Sources
People Like Helen
Mark Twain
84Mark Twain was an American writer and humorist, called the "father of American literature", whose novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn captured the voice of America and remain classics of world literature.
Why A close friend and admirer who championed Keller and called her remarkable.
Maya Angelou
80Maya Angelou was an American writer, poet and civil rights activist whose autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings became a landmark of American literature, giving powerful voice to Black womanhood, trauma and resilience.
Why A later American author whose memoir likewise turned hardship into inspiration.
Anne Frank
81Anne Frank was a German-Dutch Jewish girl whose diary, written while hiding from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam, became one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust and a lasting testament to humanity amid persecution.
Why Another young writer whose autobiographical voice inspired the world.
Rosa Parks
82Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal moment in the struggle against racial segregation.
Why Also a activist · Active in the same era
Frederick Douglass
84Frederick Douglass was an American abolitionist, orator and writer who escaped slavery to become the most powerful voice of the antislavery movement and one of the foremost advocates for equality and human rights in the 19th century.
Why Also a activist · Active in the same era
Harriet Tubman
83Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist who escaped slavery and then risked her life repeatedly to lead dozens of enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad, becoming one of the great heroes of the fight against slavery.
Why Also a activist · Active in the same era