So Helen began her college years. As hard as the Cambridge School had been, Radcliffe seemed impossible. There was never enough time. Annie spelled lectures into Helen’s hand. Annie read the textbooks to Helen. It seemed as though they were on a treadmill. There was no time for rest or Helen would fall behind.
And Helen felt alone. She and Annie lived in a small house off campus. It was away from the girls in Helen’s classes. The girls were friendly, but many did not know what to say or how to act around Helen. Others felt odd because Helen was famous. So with a quick handshake, the girls ran off.
And Helen was always working. She had no time to play, think, or daydream. She always had a paper due, a lecture to memorize, or a test to take. Helen’s first year at college was hard and lonely.
In her second year, Helen began to write themes. The themes were stories of her life. An editor at the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal heard about the themes. He asked Helen if the magazine could publish them. He offered Helen the sum of $3,000! Helen was amazed. That was a lot of money. Helen agreed. And so she began “The Story of My Life.”
Each month the magazine published a new chapter in Helen’s story. The first one went fine. But Helen handed in the second chapter late. The story was much too long. Neither Helen nor Annie knew how to edit. What were they to do?
Friends told them about a fine editor named John Macy. John helped Helen edit the articles. The magazine loved the pieces, and so did the public. By the time the last “chapter” appeared in the August issue, the world was in love with Helen Keller.
John Macy thought that Helen’s stories could be made into a book. John added Helen’s childhood letters and a section describing how Annie taught Helen.
Helen’s book, The Story of My Life, became a hit. It is still in print today. It has been published in more than fifty languages. Now Helen had a career as a writer. No one could ever say that this was not her story. It was her life!
In June 1904, Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe. Newspapers around the world reported the event. Helen had achieved what no other person with her handicaps had ever done. Now she had a college degree but what was she going to do with it?
Annie also had big questions to decide. She and John Macy had fallen in love. He wanted to marry her. But what, Annie wondered, would happen to Helen? Could she lead a more independent life? Annie wanted to marry John Macy, and so they did in 1905. Helen lived with them.
As for Helen, she kept on with her life, too. She published a second book, The World I Live In. It came out in 1908 and told of Helen’s world. It described how she used her senses of touch, smell, and taste to make up for her two missing ones. The book also revealed Helen’s wonderful imagination and how she pictured her world. The book was a hit. But Helen wanted to support herself. The money from the book was not enough to do that. How else could Helen make a living? |