AFTER THE MIRACLE

A fresh look at an international icon, offering new perspectives on her life and work.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) is remembered today as a deaf and blind child who learned to read, write, and speak, graduated college, and lived a productive life devoted to helping others. This was only part of her story, writes Canadian journalist and filmmaker Wallace in this compelling biography, which aims to quash the traditional maudlin portrayal as well as the misleading Oscar-winning 1963 movie whose hero is not Helen but her teacher, Annie Sullivan, the “Miracle Worker.” Though the author praises Sullivan as a brilliant teacher, he adds that Keller’s greatness was not merely her ability to learn, but what she accomplished with it. She was fluent in six languages, read vastly in all, and wrote numerous books, essays, and lectures, many highly opinionated. When she published her bestselling autobiography, The Story of My Life, in 1903, she was already hailed as an inspirational figure. This remains the popular image, although even during her life, the media worked hard to discount activities that would have offended admirers. Keller joined the Socialist Party of America in 1909 but left after several years because she believed it was too moderate. Like many reformers, she welcomed the Russian Revolution, and she never lost her “admiration” for the Soviet Union, even after it became unfashionable. She denounced racism both in the American South and South Africa long before it became fashionable, spoke out against poverty and child labor, supported unions and women’s suffrage, and served as a founding board member for the ACLU. This created difficulties for historians as well as journalists, and Wallace delivers an amusing review of Keller biographies. Early writers simply fawned, while later biographers dropped hints of radicalism. More recent works, especially Joseph Lash’s Helen and Teacher (1980), produced widespread outrage. Even Lash waffles by assuring readers that Keller was likely “duped” by communists, but Wallace expresses convincing doubt.

A revealing life of an important historical figure that does not diminish her.