The World I Live In (New York Review Books Classics) [Paperback]

Helen Keller (Author), Roger Shattuck (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2004 | Series: New York Review Books Classics

Out of print for nearly a century, The World I Live In is Helen Keller's most personal and intellectually adventurous work—one that transforms our appreciation of her extraordinary achievements. Here this preternaturally gifted deaf and blind young woman closely describes her sensations and the workings of her imagination, while making the pro-vocative argument that the whole spectrum of the senses lies open to her through the medium of language. Standing in the line of the works of Emerson and Thoreau, The World I Live In is a profoundly suggestive exercise in self-invention, and a true, rediscovered classic of American literature.

This new edition of The World I Live In also includes Helen Keller's early essay "Optimism," as well as her first published work, "My Story," written when she was twelve.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

HELEN ADAMS KELLER (1880–1968) was born in Tuscumbia, a small town in northwest Alabama, with full sight and hearing. At nineteen months she suffered a mysterious illness that left her both blind and deaf and interrupted her speech development. Her parents consulted a local expert on the problems of deaf children, the inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who directed them to the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. Anne Sullivan, a former student of the institution, began to teach Helen and succeeded in communicating with her in 1887, after which her pupil made extraordinary progress in both reading and writing. Helen Keller entered Radcliffe College in 1900, the first deaf-blind person to attend an institution of higher learning, and graduated in 1904. While in college, she wrote The Story of My Life, published in 1903. The book sold poorly at first, but established itself as a classic, inspiring popular accounts of Keller’s story such as William Gibson’s 1959 play The Miracle Worker. Keller’s second book, The World I Live In, followed in 1908. In subsequent years, Helen Keller joined the Socialist Party and embarked on a career as a public lecturer, raising funds for the American Foundation for the Blind, while writing several other books, including Teacher, her tribute to Anne Sullivan. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. The bronze plaque commemorating Helen Keller at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., has been replaced several times, because its Braille inscription has been repeatedly worn away by visitors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: NYRB Classics; 2003 edition (January 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590170679
• ISBN-13: 978-1590170670
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully touching, November 5, 2004

By 

D. Boyken "Knitting Scholar .com" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World I Live In (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

What beautiful writing! It's pointed out in the intro that, more than most of us, her world was shaped with WORDS. I've only read about four essays so far, and am profoundly touched. I've always admired Helen Keller, but am newly re-impressed with her wisdom and vision, and touched that she can write so clearly as to make me feel how little she felt limited by her handicap. If Helen Keller had simply learned to behave and ask politely for her food, etc, it would have been an impressive accomplishment. The fact that she grew to fully embrace her intelligence, her world and her potential . . . wow. I know so many people who are content to just do the bare minimum, to not stretch their limits at all, to not show any intellectual curiosity . . . she had the perfect excuse to exert the least effort, yet she didn't. Once she was given the key, the entree to humanity, she didn't let her handicaps stop her. I love that even all these years later, she is still able to share that.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book, January 22, 2012

By 

TheReader - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The World I Live In (Kindle Edition)

Simply amazing book. I could not put it away.

She provides an insight on how she perceives the world. She is truly an inspiration.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hellen Keller was an amazing person, April 25, 2011

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Kindle Reader - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The World I Live In (Kindle Edition)

This book was impressively deep and gave awesome insight into the world Hellen Keller lived in and her views and thoughts of life and the world that was unseen but not unknown to her