Helen Keller
The highest result of education is tolerance.
Helen Keller, 'Optimism', 1903
Helen Keller is the American writer who impresses and influences me most. She teaches me to observe and love: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart." I read the Chinese translations of her autobiography called The Story of My Life (1903), Out of the Dark (1913), Teacher (1955) and Three Days to See (1933) in The Atlantic Monthly. The four works are compiled as one book called 《假如給三天光明》, published by Hawn Publishing House in 2002.
經歷
In April 1998,the United Statesmagazine TIME included Helen Kellerin its list of the 100 most influential peopleof the 20th century, for "She altered our perception of the disabled and remapped the boundaries of sight and sense." Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880-June 1, 1968) was a deaf blind American author, activistandlecturer. She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her disabilities were caused by a fever in February, 1882 when she was only 19 months old.
In 1886, delegated teacher and former student of Perkins Institute for the Blind, Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired, went to Keller's to try to open up Helen's mind. It was the beginning of a 49 year long period of working together.
Anne was able to teach Helen to think intelligibly and to speak. Helen also learned to read English, French, German, Greek, and Latin in Braille. In 1888, Helen attended Perkins Institute for the Blind. In 1904 at the age of 24, Helen graduated from Radcliff cum laude, becoming the first deaf and blind person to graduate from a college.
Helen went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. Helen Keller was a member of the Socialist Party and actively campaigned and wrote in support of the working classes from 1909 to 1921. She wrote a total of eleven books, and authored numerous articles. Keller devoted much of her later life to raise funds for the American Foundation for the Blind. On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States. highest civilian honor.
Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at the age of 87 at Arcane Ridge, Easton, Connecticut, more than 30 years after the death of Anne Sullivan.
