Helen Keller
American author and activist
Helen Keller was an American author, activist and lecturer who was deaf and blind from early childhood. She wrote The Story of My Life.
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American Born 1880 in Ivy Green, United States Died 1968
About Helen Keller
Helen Keller (1880–1968) was born in Alabama. An illness at 19 months old left her without sight or hearing. At seven she began working with her teacher Anne Sullivan, who taught her language, including reading and writing. Keller went on to study at Radcliffe College, and no deafblind American had graduated from college before her. She campaigned for people with disabilities, women's right to vote, labor rights and world peace. She joined the Socialist Party of America in 1909 and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. Her autobiography, The Story of My Life, was published in 1903 and tells of her education and her life with Sullivan. William Gibson later adapted her story as the play The Miracle Worker, which also became a film in 1962.