HELEN KELLER and an unreadable post card

Part of me says, "Oh, there's no reason to explain who Helen Keller is. Everyone knows her story." Then I start thinking about how poorly educated we are in this country and I know there are a lot of people who haven't a clue who this great woman was. All I'll provide are snippets in hopes that others will take the time to look into her life, learn from it. Find out what a true hero is. Not a phony sports figure, two bit rock star, or movie star. Someone who through terrific odds left the world a better place.

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker.

A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled, and was outspoken in her opposition to war. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Wobblies, she campaigned for women's suffrage, workers' rights, and socialism, as well as many other leftist causes.

Early childhood and illness
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her family lived on a homestead, Ivy Green, that Helen's grandfather had built decades earlier. Helen's father, Arthur H. Keller, spent many years as an editor for the Tuscumbia North Alabamian and had served as a captain for the Confederate Army. Helen's paternal grandmother was the second cousin of Robert E. Lee. Helen's mother, Kate Adams, was the daughter of Charles Adams. Though originally from Massachusetts, Charles Adams also fought for the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, earning the rank of brigadier-general.

Helen's father's lineage can be traced to Casper Keller, a native of Switzerland. Coincidentally, one of Helen's Swiss ancestors was the first teacher for the deaf in Zurich. Helen reflects upon this coincidence in her first autobiography, stating "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."

Helen Keller was not born blind and deaf; it was not until she was 19 months old that she contracted an illness described by doctors as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain", which might have been scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness did not last for a particularly long time, but it left her deaf and blind. At that time, she was able to communicate somewhat with Martha Washington, the six-year-old daughter of the family cook, who understood her signs; by the age of seven, she had over 60 home signs to communicate with her family.

In 1886, her mother, inspired by an account in Charles Dickens' American Notes of the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, dispatched young Helen, accompanied by her father, to seek out Dr. J. Julian Chisolm, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baltimore, for advice. He subsequently put them in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell advised the couple to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Bridgman had been educated, which was then located in South Boston. Michael Anaganos, the school's director, asked former student Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired and only 20 years old, to become Keller's instructor. It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship, Sullivan evolving into governess and then eventual companion.

Anne Sullivan arrived at Keller's house in March 1887, and immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with "d-o-l-l" for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. Keller was frustrated, at first, because she did not understand that every object had a word uniquely identifying it. In fact, when Sullivan was trying to teach Keller the word for "mug", Keller became so frustrated she broke the doll. Keller's big breakthrough in communication came the next month, when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of "water"; she then nearly exhausted Sullivan demanding the names of all the other familiar objects in her world.

Due to a protruding left eye, Keller was usually photographed in profile. Both her eyes were replaced in adulthood with glass replicas for "medical and cosmetic reasons". (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The reason for this post is because of this old post card I found in one of my many post card boxes. I remember buying it at an estate sale. The only reason I bought it was because of the link to Keller.

What I find funny is that here we have a card honoring a great communicator and the person who scrawled their message on this card was definitely missing the point. I simply can't read their writing.

My first introduction to Helen Keller was this little Scholastic Book originally published in 1958. This one is a fifth edition published in 1962. Oh yes, I did so love the Scholastic Book Club. But I've done a post about that in the past.

Apparently the house shown in the post card, Ivy Green, is open to visitors. For information click on Helen Keller Birthplace. I think it would be a fascinating place to visit.

SUMMERTIME reading

Raise your hand if you remember the Scholastic Book Club when you were in school. 4 books for 4 quarters, shipping included. What a deal! My allowance was up to 25 cents a week so that meant it took me a month to save up enough money. Of course during that month I'd also probably have bought some comic books, maybe walked to town to go see a movie, and stopped at the deli for a sandwich. Okay, so maybe it took me a few months to save enough for the four books.  But I did manage to buy a few. My friend across the street bought some too and then we'd share so we'd feel like we'd gotten double the books. Of course she bought "The Pink Motel" and I didn't and I spent the next few decades hunting for the book.

Anyway, if you remember this little club you know the sales page was in the middle of the Scholastic Reader handed out every so often by your teacher. You could take the reader home and pour over the two page spread trying to imagine which books you'd buy. Then on a specific day the teacher would take your order with your coins and in a few weeks a big box would arrive. Everyone who'd bought something was excited as the box was opened and the contents distributed. Those who hadn't bought anything could at least take solace in knowing for those moments no teaching was taking place so you were free to let your mind wander.

The spread below is from a SummerTime Scholastic Reader in 1963. Do click on it to see it larger so you can take a trip down memory lane and imagine placing your order.

And now, for a few books I bought and one that was passed down to me from my best friend after it had been passed to her from her friend and before that someone else and before that...all  the names written on the inside cover. By the time it got to me it was falling apart so I loaned it out to a few friends who gave it back lest they be the ones to have nothing but a stack of pages scattered across their floor. 

Click on any image to see it larger.

Big Read by Jim Kjelgaard, copyright 1945

Strangely Enough by C. B. Colby, copyright 1959

The Black Spaniel Mystery by Betty Cavanna, copyright 1945

The Mystery of the Empty Room by Augusta Huiell Seaman, copyright 1953

And finally one I found in a thrift store years ago. I've never read it, but imagine I would have had it on my list. I mean, she's wearing my swimsuit, except mine was red. And she was hanging out with surfers. Of course I would have wanted this!

Practically Seventeen by Rosamond du Jardin, copyright 1943.

Unlike a lot of the books marketed to kids today, parents knew with these that they were safe. For us they were fun. For today's kids they'd be a bore. I have to feel sorry for them. Too much, too soon.

And from the almost always interesting Wikipedia I give you this little bit of history:

In 1920, Maurice R. "Robbie" Robinson founded the business he named Scholastic Publishing Company in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a publisher of youth magazines, the first publication was The Western Pennsylvania Scholastic. It covered high school sports and debuted on October 22, 1920.

In 1926, Scholastic published its first book, Saplings, which was a collection of selected student writings by the winners of the Scholastic Writing Awards.

For many years the company continued its focus on serving the youth market through the relatively low cost of magazine publication. So, even with the later transition into paperback books, the company continued under the name Scholastic Magazines, Inc., through the 1970s.

After World War II, cheap paperback books became available. In 1948, Scholastic entered the school book club business with its division T.A.B., or Teen Age Book Club with classic titles priced at 25 cents.

In 1957, Scholastic established its first international subsidiary, Scholastic Canada, in Toronto.

The company published paperback books under its division Scholastic Book Services. These were offered to school students via classroom mail order catalogs, known as the Scholastic Book Club. Along with the New York and Toronto publishing locations, the division also expanded further internationally to operate in London, Auckland, and Sydney by the 1960s. By 1974, the paperback book division had expanded into Tokyo as well. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

And now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go while away a few summer moments on the glider with The Pink Motel. No, this is not a Scholastic Book Club edition, but it was through them that I first read this book. I found it years ago at the Goodwill and grabbed it. I still love it several decades later and can't recommend it enough for children or anyone who likes to imagine themselves still a child.

The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink, copyright 1959