Table Of Content

The Radical Lives of Helen Keller The History of Disability A series edited by Paul K. Longmore and Lauri Umansky The New Disability History: American Perspectives Paul K. Longmore and Lauri Umansky Reflections: The Life and Writings of a Young Blind Woman in Post-Revolutionary France Edited and translated by Catherine J. Kudlick and Zina Weygand Signs of Resistance: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 to World War II Susan Burch The Radical Lives of Helen Keller Kim E. Nielsen The Radical Lives of Helen Keller Kim E. Nielsen Consulting Editor: Harvey J. Kaye a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2004 by New York University All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nielsen, Kim E. The radical lives of Helen Keller / Kim E. Nielsen p. cm. — (The history of disability series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–8147–5813–4 (hc : acid-free) 1. Helen Keller, 1880–1968. 2. Helen Keller, 1880–1968—Political and social views. 3. Blind-deaf women—United States—Biography. 4. Blind-deaf women—Education—United States. I. Title. II. Series. HV1624.K4N54 2003 362.4'1'092—dc21 2003014386 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Nathan Contents Acknowledgments ix Timeline xi Introduction 1 1 I Do Not Like This World As It Is: 1900–1924 15 2 The Call of the Sightless: 1924–1937 47 3 Manna in My Desert Places: 1937–1948 65 4 I Will Not Allow Polly to Climb a Pyramid: 1948–1968 99 5 One of the Least Free People on Earth: The Making and Remaking of Helen Keller 125 Notes 143 Bibliography 167 Index 175 About the Author 178 vii Acknowledgments Unlike previous Hellen Keller biographers, I come to Keller as a historian trained in women’s political lives in the twentieth-century United States. As a child I did not read Keller’s mythical story or connect intensely with her image. Neither am I particularly interested in Anne Sullivan Macy’s ed ucation of her. Amazement with her disability and her accomplishments didn’t prompt this book nor did a desire to commemorate her. My intellec tual interests center around how U.S. women have justified, explained, em- braced, fought for, and lived out their citizenship on personal, familial, local, and national levels. Helen Keller interests me because she was one of the most influential and widely recognized women of the twentieth cen tury, whose primary interests were political but whose political life has been largely ignored. The best part about writing on Helen Keller is the people I have met along the way. The generosity, intellectual energy, good spirits, and colle giality of the disability studies community are unparalleled. Paul Long- more and Lauri Umansky served as model editors, responding with good cheer to questions large and small. Susan Burch, Derek Jeffreys, Murdoch Johnson, Harvey Kaye, Linda Kerber, Brynne Thomas, and Dianne Tuff read the manuscript at pivotal moments and offered sound advice. Linn Heider is doubly talented, providing loving childcare and spotting me on the bench press. Commentators, fellow panelists, and audience members at meetings of the Organization of American Historians, Society for Dis ability Studies, Berkshire Conference on Women’s History, Southern His torical Association, and the University of Wisconsin-System Women’s Studies Conference offered insightful comments and vigorous questions. All helped to make this book better. ix

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Several decades after her death in 1968, Helen Keller remains one of the most widely recognized women of the twentieth century. But the fascinating story of her vivid political life—particularly her interest in radicalism and anti-capitalist activism—has been largely overwhelmed by the sentiment