Helen Adams Keller was born in Alabama, on June 27, 1880, as the daughter of Captain Arthur Henley Keller and Kate Adams Keller.Helen was not born blind and deaf, but she lost her hearing and sight at 19 months of age. Her mother got in touch with the Perkins Institute for the Blind from where they got the contact of Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired. In 1887, Anne Sullivan became Helen’s tutor.She taught the seven year old Helen by writing words on her hand. In 1890 Keller was taught to speak by Sarah Fuller of the Horace Mann School. Keller learned to use sign language, to read Braille, to type, and to dance and ride on horseback. In her books The Story of My life, Light In My Darkness, Teacher : Anne Sullivan Mac Y. Keller depicted how she was hungry for the words, confessing ‘Literature is utopia.’ The Story of My Life appeared when she was only twenty-two. She campaigned for women’s suffrage, worker’s rights and socialism as well as many progressive causes. Keller was an activist for racial and sexual equality, and as an avowed socialist she had left-leaning opinions. She died in her sleep on June 1, 1968 and her ashes were placed next to her constant companions, Anne Sullivan and Polly Thompson.On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United States, ‘highest’ two civilian honour. In 1965 she was elected to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, at the New York World’s Fair.
