Helen Keller was born June 27th, 1880, and died June 1st, 1968. She became deaf and blind due to an illness as a 19 month old baby. Her mother contacted the deaf specialist Alexander Graham Bell for help, which led to Anne Sullivan becoming assigned as Helen's lifelong teacher and companion (Miss Sullivan teaching Helen the word WATER has been made famous in several movies).
Helen became a keen student and activist. She first attended the Perkins School for the Blind, then the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf, and finally Radcliffe College, where at age 24, she graduated magna cum laude. Besides learning to speak in English, Helen learned to communicate in French, German, Greek, and Latin. It was while a student at Radcliffe that she wrote this autobiography.
In later years Helen Keller would champion numerous causes, becoming a suffragist, pacifist, and birth control supporter. She founded "Helen Keller International", a non-profit organization for preventing blindness, and in an effort to improve the lives of the poor working class, she became an active member in the Socialist Party. Helen traveled the world visiting 39 countries, became friends to many famous personalities such as Mark Twain, was hosted by every U.S. President during her lifetime, and was awarded the "Presidential Medal of Freedom", the United States' highest civilian honor.