Book Club review: The Story of My Life (by Helen Keller)

• Published in: Practical neurology Vol. 19; no. 5; p. 456
• Main Authors: Bhatt, Harsh, Hughes, Tom A T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BMJ Publishing Group LTD 01.10.2019
• Subjects: Book clubs; Deafness; Keller, Helen (1880-1968); Lowell, James Russell (1819-1891); United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 1474-7758; 1474-7766
• DOI: 10.1136/practneurol-2019-002212

The book charts Keller’s early years from birth until the age of 22, and begins in darkness as a bout of suspected scarlet fever leaves her with ‘acute congestion of the stomach and brain’. Whatever the cause, Keller went on to achieve noteworthy academic accomplishments, graduating cum laude in 1904 from Radcliffe College (Harvard’s answer to higher education for women at the turn of the 20th century, and later a fully integrated part of the University3); thus we agreed that her brain itself must have been largely spared. Even as the roots, shut in the darksome earth, Share in the tree-top’s joyance, and conceive Of sunshine and wide air and winged things, By sympathy of nature, so do I The book is short, comes in an economical paperback version and has obvious appeal to a neuroscience audience in describing an upbringing devoid of two fundamental special senses.