Keller, Helen Adams, 1880–1968, American author and lecturer, blind and deaf from an undiagnosed illness at the age of two, b. Tuscumbia, Ala. In 1887 she was put under the charge of Anne Sullivan (see Macy, Anne Sullivan ), who was her teacher and companion until Sullivan"s death in 1936. As a pupil Helen Keller made rapid progress and was graduated from Radcliffe in 1904 with honors. She lectured all over America and in Europe and Asia, raising funds for the training of the blind and promoting other social causes. Her books include The Story of My Life (1903), The World I Live In (1908), Helen Keller"s Journal, 1936–1937 (1938), Let Us Have Faith (1940), and The Open Door (1957).

See biographies by M. Weiner (1970), J. P. Lash (1980, repr. 1997), and D. Herrmann (1998).