The World I Live In

Out of print for nearly a century,The World I Live Inis Helen Keller's most personal and intellectually adventurous workone that transforms our appreciation of her extraordinary achievements. Here this preternaturally gifted deaf and blind young woman closely describes her sensations and the workings of her imagination, while making the pro-vocative argument that the whole spectrum of the senses lies open to her through the medium of language. Standing in the line of the works of Emerson and Thoreau,The World I Live Inis a profoundly suggestive exercise in self-invention, and a true, rediscovered classic of American literature. This new edition ofThe World I Live Inalso includes Helen Keller's early essay "Optimism," as well as her first published work, "My Story," written when she was twelve.

Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. At nineteen months, she suffered from a mysterious illness, perhaps scarlet fever, that left her deaf and blind. When Helen was five, Anne Sullivan was engaged as her teacher. Their relationship and the legendary strides made as a result of it, particularly Helen’s acquisition of language, are the subject of The Story of My Life. A devoted member of the Socialist Party and a tireless advocate for the blind, Helen spent her adult life fundraising and lecturing all over the world. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

Roger Shattuck (1923–2005) was an American writer and scholar of French culture. He taught at Harvard, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia, and Boston University, where he was named University Professor. His books include Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography.