1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice, but it lacks in something., April 1, 2011
This review is from: The Story of My Life (Enriched Classics (Pocket)) (Mass Market Paperback)
I have really enjoyed learning about Helen Keller and her fantastic "Teacher" (quite literally), Annie Sullivan. Both are very amazing women of their time, and still are.
Here is my review on this book:
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was a very healthy baby, until, at the age of 19 months, she was struck both blind and deaf after an attack of scarlet fever, and therefore mute as a result.
Because she could not communicate verbally, she had invented over sixty of her own signs. And because she could not say what all she wanted, she would eplode in a rage of anger when someone did not understand her signs. Finally, she became so destructive that her parents had to do something. So, Helen's father, Captain Arthur Keller wrote to Perkins School for the Blind, in Boston, Massachusetts. The director of Perkins sent Miss Annie Mansfield Sullivan to come and teach Helen to behave and communicate. After about a month, Annie broke through to Helen.
A few years later, there was "The Frost King" incident. Helen had wrote a story that she had thought she had made up herself, but she soon learned that she had NOT in fact, come up with it, but a lady by the name of Margeret Canby had written a story very similar indeed, called "Frost Fairies." You can read more about this in this book.
After much effort, Helen entered The Cambridge School for Young Ladies. After a lot of problems during her three years there, she and Annie entered Radcliffe College in 1900. Helen goes into much detail into about how hard her studies were there, but, because she was still was schooling there, she does not mention that she graduated "cum laude."
My review on this edition:
It was nice, but I would swear that there are some very nice parts that have been edited out that I remember there being in another edition I read before. I have to ask: Didn't they think John Macy did a good enough job? Also, stangely enough, even though the second half of this book is all of the letters Helen wrote from 1887 to 1904, this edition does not include Annie's letters to Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins during her first year in Tuscumbia.
One last little thing, in regards to the writing:
I warn you: Helen does not seem to know how to tell time! You read one chapter thinking she's still a young girl, and then she mentions her age, and you're like: I thought she was still eight, not fourteen! If you really want to learn about her relationship with Annie, I suggest you read her biography of Annie, called "Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy." Helen could write much better by then (as in like telling time). I also suggest "Helen Keller: a Life." It is an excellant book, it almost seems to be a duel biography; a very good "page-turner."
If you still aren't sure that you want to buy this book, go to: [...]. Click on "Helen Keller," and when you see a box that says "Related Links," you should see "The Story of my Life." Click on it, and you will be reading the world famous Helen Keller's autobiography.
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