Helen Keller — The Story of My Life (1903)

Written while Helen Keller was a student at Radcliffe College, this is the story of a child cut off from sight and sound, and of the teacher who reached her.

Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing to an illness before she was two years old. The Story of My Life, published in 1903, tells how a frustrated, isolated child became a reader, a writer and a university student.

The water pump

At its heart is Anne Sullivan, the young teacher who arrived at the Keller home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1887. The book’s most famous scene comes at the water pump, when Helen suddenly understands that the letters Sullivan is spelling into one hand mean the cool water rushing over the other. From that moment, she wrote, everything had a name.

Why it still matters

The original edition also includes letters Helen wrote as a child and Anne Sullivan’s own reports on her teaching. Together they show that the “miracle” was really years of patience, persistence and daily work. It remains one of the most widely read autobiographies in the world.

Part of the Boston Made Reader’s special collection Courage, Conscience & Service. Every book and document here is free to read.