Categories
1880s 1890s Letters/Correspondence

Two Letters of Helen Keller

Two Letters of Helen Keller[1]

By Helen Keller
Annotations by Celia Hawley
Charles Whitman. Helen Adams Keller. Platinum print, 1904, National Portrait Gallery,
Washington, D.C. 
TO MR. WILLIAM WADE
  South Boston, Mass., Nov. 20, 1889.

  My Dear Mr. Wade:—I have just received a letter from my mother,
  telling me that the beautiful mastiff puppy you sent me had
  arrived in Tuscumbia safely.[2] Thank you very much for the nice
  gift. I am very sorry that I was not at home to welcome her; but
  my mother and my baby sister will be very kind to her while her
  mistress is away. I hope she is not lonely and unhappy. I think
  puppies can feel very home-sick, as well as little girls. I
  should like to call her Lioness, for your dog. May I? I hope she
  will be very faithful,—and brave, too.                                    
                                         
  I am studying in Boston, with my dear teacher. I learn a great
  many new and wonderful things. I study about the earth, and the
  animals, and I like arithmetic exceedingly. I learn many new
  words, too. EXCEEDINGLY is one that I learned yesterday. When I
  see Lioness I will tell her many things which will surprise her
  greatly. I think she will laugh when I tell her she is a
  vertebrate, a mammal, a quadruped; and I shall be very sorry to
  tell her that she belongs to the order Carnivora. I study French,
  too. When I talk French to Lioness I will call her mon beau
  chien. Please tell Lion that I will take good care of Lioness. I
  shall be happy to have a letter from you when you like to write
  to me.

  From your loving little friend,
  HELEN A. KELLER.

  P.S. I am studying at the Institution for the Blind.

  H. A. K. [3]
TO  DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
  South Boston, Mass., April, 1891

  Dear Dr. Holmes:—Your beautiful words about spring have been
  making music in my heart, these bright April days. I love every
  word of "Spring" and "Spring Has Come." I think you will be glad
  to hear that these poems have taught me to enjoy and love the
  beautiful springtime, even though I cannot see the fair, frail
  blossoms which proclaim its approach, or hear the joyous warbling
  of the home-coming birds. But when I read "Spring Has Come," lo!
  I am not blind any longer, for I see with your eyes and hear with
  your ears. Sweet Mother Nature can have no secrets from me when
  my poet is near. I have chosen this paper because I want the
  spray of violets in the corner to tell you of my grateful love. I
  want you to see baby Tom, the little blind and deaf and dumb
  child who has just come to our pretty garden. He is poor and
  helpless and lonely now, but before another April education will
  have brought light and gladness into Tommy's life. If you do
  come, you will want to ask the kind people of Boston to help
  brighten Tommy's whole life. Your loving friend,
  HELEN KELLER.
Keller, Helen. “to mr. William Wade,” “To Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.” Personal correspondence, Courtesy American Federation for the blind.

[1] Helen was only 9 and 11 years old, respectively, when she wrote these letters. Newspapers in America and Europe had already celebrated her, and she had met a number of well-known people of the period. At the age of eight, she visited President Grover Cleveland at the White House. (See Helen Keller: Selected Writings)

[2] Tuscumbia, Alabama is Helen Keller’s birthplace. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is also the location of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

[3] Helen wrote this correspondence by hand. She learned to write using paper with a grooved board behind it, an arduous and time-consuming process. Having learned her first letters and words through manual finger positions, she would eventually learn and have access to standard Braille, a system not adopted in the U.S. until 1918. (See Helen Keller: Selected Writings)

Contexts

Helen was born with both sight and hearing, as detailed in the Helen Keller Biography. She and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, were lifelong companions. Anne’s life was alsofull of challenges to overcome. Born in 1866 to a family who left Ireland due to the Great Famine, Anne contracted a chronic eye disease at age five. She and her brother Jimmy were abandoned to a poor house as children after their mother’s death, and her admittance to the Perkins Institute changed her life.

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

The Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts, is the oldest school for the blind in the U.S. The school now uses the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC), a disability-specific set of skills that focuses on many avenues to independence.

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