The Story of My Life

Publisher Marketing: 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 child's 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. I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama. The family on my father's side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education-rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. Review Citations: Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780893753689, Paperback) Ingram Paperback Advance 05/01/2005 pg. 63 (EAN 9781416500322, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780899665092, Library Binding) Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2002 pg. 94 (EAN 9780393057447, Hardcover) Library Journal 03/01/2003 pg. 124 (EAN 9780393057447, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Library Journal 12/01/2002 (EAN 9780393057447, Hardcover) Women's Review of Books 01/01/2004 pg. 10 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2005 pg. 145 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2005 pg. 63 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Middle/Junior Hi Catalo 01/01/2005 pg. 416 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2007 pg. 586 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 12/31/2008 pg. 1018 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Middle/Junior Hi Catalo 01/01/2009 pg. 583 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2011 pg. 715 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2013 pg. 1206 (EAN 9780679642879, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780816158164, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780553213874, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780486292496, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780451524478, Mass Market Paperbound) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1993 pg. 796 (EAN 9780385044530, Hardcover) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/1992 pg. 520 (EAN 9780385044530, Hardcover) Wilson Middle/Junior Hi Catalo 01/01/1995 pg. 329 (EAN 9780385044530, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780606004817, Prebound-Other) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 783 (EAN 9780785407232, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Keller, Helen Helen Keller (1880 1968), deaf and blind for virtually her entire life, played a major role in focusing the world's attention on the problems of the blind and the need for preventive measures. She won numerous honors for her work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and election to the Women's Hall of Fame.