Helen Keller

Destinada a vivir casi separada del mundo, por ciega y sordomuda, superó todas sus imposibilidades. Un hermoso y ejemplar testimonio contra el que no podrá el olvido. El cine, la televisión y los co

El libro que reúne la esencia del pensamiento de la mujer más extraordinaria del siglo XX.Marcada desde su más tierna infancia por la ceguera y la sordera totales, Helen Keller fue capaz de superar, con la abnegada y paciente ayuda de la maestra Anne Sullivan, todos los obstaculos hasta convertirse en una pensadora, oradora, escritora y activista politica de prestigio internacional. Sus ansias de vivir, sus re exiones sobre la vida y las limitaciones por la carencia de dos sentidos importantes, su fe y sus ideas en defensa de los derechos civiles, la liberacion de la mujer y los derechos de los trabajadores, la han convertido en un ejemplo de superacion personal y de compromiso social y politico. Este libro reune la esencia de su pensamiento, tan delicado como profundo.

El cine, la televisión y los compendios infantiles han difundido ampliamente la figura de Helen Keller (Tuscumbia, 1880-Easton, 1968), esa maravillosa mujer que, pese a parecer estar destinada a vivir casi separada del mundo, por ciega y sordomuda, inverosimil y milagrosamente, supero todas sus imposibilidades y vivio una larga vida dando conferencias y escribiendo libros; uno de ellos, Light in my Darkness, sobre el intrincado y sutilisimo mistico sueco Emanuel Swedenborg.Este otro libro, The Story of my Life, lo escribio mientras aun estaba en la universidad con la ayuda de su institutriz y amiga Anne Sullivan y del marido de esta, John Macy. Fue publicado por vez primera en 1903, cuando la autora contaba 22 años. La presente edicion rescata la de la temprana, primera y unica hasta el momento, edicion española (1905). Fue traducido por una de las mas brillantes escritoras españolas del primer tercio del siglo XX, Carmen de Burgos Colombine, hoy dia un tanto olvidada.La historia de mi vida de Helen Keller, sigue siendo, pese a mas de un siglo de descuido editorial, un hermoso y ejemplar testimonio de superacion y valentia humanas contra el que no podra el olvido.Helen Keller. Nacio en 1880, y antes de cumplir dos años de vida perdio la vista y el oido en el transcurso de una enfermedad. Durante casi seis años, dice, vivi privada del menor concepto sobre la naturaleza o la mente, la muerte o Dios. Puede decirse que pensaba con mi cuerpo, y, sin excepcion, los recuerdos de aquella epoca estan relacionados con el tacto... No habia una chispa de emocion o racionalidad en esos recuerdos clarisimos, aunque meramente corporales; podia compararme con un insensible pedazo de corcho. De pronto, sin que recuerde el lugar, el tiempo o el procedimiento exacto, senti en el cerebro el impacto de otra mente y desperte al lenguaje, el saber, el amor, a las habituales nociones acerca de la naturaleza, el bien y el mal.Lentamente, aprendio los nombres de las cosas que podia tocar; aprendio a hablar y a escuchar con las manos. Aprendio a escribir y a mecanografiar. Fue admitida en el Radcliffe College, y alli curso estudios. Ninguna mujer de su epoca ha sido tan merecidamente celebrada.

Hellen Kéller fue una autora, activista y oradora estadounidense, sorda y ciega. De todos es conocido el film El milagro de Anne Sullivan (1962), impresionante película que cuenta la vida de esta mujer inigualable. Las cosas esenciales son invisibles a los ojos y Hellen Keller, una invidente, nos enseña a mirar lo esencial. Esta obra se completa un breve texto sobre el optimismo que escribio en 1903, justo antes de graduarse cum laude en Radlicffe College siendo la primera persona sorda en graduarse en la universidad (para aprender, su amiga Anne Sullivan habia traducido cada palabra en su mano).

Helen Keller - It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present.

Helen Keller, Roger ShattuckHelen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880. She was an American author, political activist and lecturer. When she was 19 months old she contracted what might have been scarlet fever or meningitis. Keller was blind and deaf from that point on. Her story was made world famous by the movie The Miracle Worker. The essays and poem in The World I Live In originally appeared in the Century Magazine. Although this book is autobiographical, it is also a description of how Ms Keller used her hands and the hands of others to experience her world.

In this autobiography, initially published in 1903, Helen Keller recalls her remarkable life as a blind and deaf woman taught to communicate by Ann Sullivan. Here among other memories, Keller describes her epiphany at the water pump when she connected the physical world with its linguistic counterpart. Keller was eventually educated at Radcliffe University, where she graduated with honors.

It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the childs experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest." Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy; and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious I shall try to present in a series of sketches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and important.

The World I Live In by Helen Keller is a collection of essays that poignantly tells of her impressions of the world, through her sense of touch, smell, her imagination and dreams.My hand is to me what your hearing and sight together are to you. In large measure we travel the same highways, read the same books, speak the same language, yet our experiences are different. All my comings and goings turn on the hand as on a pivot. It is the hand that binds me to the world of men and women. The hand is my feeler with which I reach through isolation and darkness and seize every pleasure, every activity that my fingers encounter. With the dropping of a little word from anothers hand into mine, a slight flutter of the fingers, began the intelligence, the joy, the fullness of my life. Helen Keller, quoted from her essay, The Seeing Hand

An American classic rediscovered by each generation, The Story of My Life is Helen Kellers account of her triumph over deafness and blindness. Popularized by the stage play and movie The Miracle Worker, Kellers story has become a symbol of hope for people all over the world...

Secondary Title - A supplementary Account of Helen Kellers Education, including passages from the Reports and Letters of her Teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan. In fact, over half of the book is Anne Sullivans written reports for the Perkins Institute on her unique (homeschooling on steroids!) teaching methods, which she invented as she went along. John Albert Macy, Anne Sullivans husband, was uniquely positioned to gather the written material in this book. He helped Helen edit the now famous "The Story Of My Life" (Part 1 of this trilogy), describing her early life in her own words. He was able to gather Helens early letters (Part 2), and for Part 3 to gain access to Anne Sullivans papers, and sundry correspondence from the great influencers in Helens life. According to Macy, it was Miss Sullivan who discovered the way to teach language to the deaf-blind.