My Religion

FOREWORD Helen Keller is loved the world over. Her accomplishments in the face of unique difficulties have stirred our sense of the heroic; her patient struggle and convincing triumph touch our hearts. No one can appreciate the secret of her growth without some knowledge of her spiritual background. To her, religion is a way of living day by day. In her view, spiritual life is as real and as practical as natural life. Her Christianity is built on the gospel of love. Miss Keller is often questioned in public about her religion. She answers briefly, but always longs to say more. And so, when asked to write a book about her religion, she welcomed the opportunity to tell her many friends just what her religious ideals are and where she found them. It has been a labour of love, and she has poured her soul into it, not to argue a point, but to share with others what is of inestimable value to her. Here is a mind kept singularly pure from childhood; here is a religious experience unhampered by the blindness of any sectarianism; here is a spiritual insight, a gift of perception, undulled by absorption in the things of sense life. Here is one in whom the Lord has worked a miracle, and she declares to us "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." Paul Sperry About the author: Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled, and was outspoken in her anti-war convictions. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and other radical left causes. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1971. The Story of My Life, first published in 1903, is Helen Keller's autobiography detailing her early life, especially her experiences with Anne Sullivan.[1] Portions of it were adapted by William Gibson for a 1957 Playhouse 90 production, a 1959 Broadway play, a 1962 Hollywood feature film, and the Indian film Black. The book is dedicated to inventor Alexander Graham Bell. The dedication reads, "To ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL Who has taught the deaf to speak and enabled the listening ear to hear speech from the Atlantic to the Rockies, I dedicate this Story of My Life." (wikipedia.org)