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The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller Dedication
To
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
Who
has taught the deaf to speak and
enabled the listening ear to hear speech from
the Atlantic to the Rockies, I
dedicate this
Story of My Life.
Helen Keller
Editor's
Preface
This
book is in three parts. The first two, Miss Keller's story and the
extracts from her letters, form a complete account of her life as far as
she can give it. Much of her education she cannot explain herself, and
since a knowledge of that is necessary to an understanding of what she has
written, it was thought best to supplement her autobiography with the
reports and letters of her teacher, Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan. The
addition of a further account of Miss Keller's personality and
achievements may be unnecessary; yet it will help to make clear some of
the traits of her character and the nature of the work which she and her
teacher have done. For
the third part of the book the Editor is responsible, though all that is
valid in it he owes to authentic records and to the advice of Miss
Sullivan. The
Editor desires to express his gratitude and the gratitude of Miss Keller
and Miss Sullivan to The Ladies' Home Journal and to its editors, Mr.
Edward Bok and Mr. William V. Alexander, who have been unfailingly kind
and have given for use in this book all the photographs which were taken
expressly for the Journal; and the Editor thanks Miss Keller's many
friends who have lent him her letters to them and given him valuable
information; especially Mrs. Laurence Hutton, who supplied him with her
large collection of notes and anecdotes; Mr. John Hitz, Superintendent of
the Volta Bureau for the Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge relating to
the Deaf; and Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins, to whom Miss Sullivan wrote those
illuminating letters, the extracts from which give a better idea of her
methods with her pupil than anything heretofore published. Messrs.
Houghton, Mifflin and Company have courteously permitted the reprinting of
Miss Keller's letter to Dr. Holmes, which appeared in "Over the
Teacups," and one of Whittier's letters to Miss Keller. Mr. S. T.
Pickard, Whittier's literary executor, kindly sent the original of another
letter from Miss Keller to Whittier. John
Albert Macy. Cambridge,
Massachusetts, February 1, 1903.
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