KELLER, Helen (1880-1968). Author, lecturer . Autograph letter signed ("Helen Keller") to Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), [Tuscumbia, AL], [November 1887]. 3 pp, 8vo, written on rectos only of 3 sheets . SEVEN-YEAR-OLD HELEN KELLER TO ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL "I DO LOVE YOU" An extremely rare childhood letter from Helen Keller, written only a few months after she learned to use a grooved writing board, addressed to the inventor Alexander Graham Bell the man who had helped spark her emergence from a world of silence and darkness. Bell began his investigations into the electric transmission of the human voice as a young man and his explorations into the possibility of a telephone were a result of his close work with the deaf. As a teacher of several schools for the deaf and as a private tutor, Bell endeavored to promote the use of visible speech to aid the hearing impaired. It was his position as an activist for the education of the deaf which drew Arthur Keller to seek Bell's advice concerning his daughter Helen. Helen had been assailed by sickness when she was only nineteen months old. The extreme fever which accompanied her illness left her blind and deaf. It became obvious that she was an intelligent young girl who was severely limited by her disability and was frustrated over her inability to communicate. Arthur Keller, Helen and his sister arranged to meet with Bell in Washington. Bell was touched by the young girl's condition and immediately suggested Mr. Keller contact the Perkins School for the blind in Boston. The Perkins School assigned a young tutor, Anne Sullivan, to the case. In March of 1887, Anne moved in with the Keller family. After days of frustration over the failure to penetrate Helen's silent world, the young teacher achieved a miraculous breakthrough. Utilizing finger spelling, Helen was able to realize that the words that she spelled identified actual objects. Her vocabulary expanded rapidly and, before the end of the Summer, she had learned to use a writing board to put her words to paper. Now, only eight months after Sullivan arrived in her home and only three to four months after she first learned to write, Helen addresses a wonderfully innocent letter to Bell: "Dear Mr. Bell, I am glad to write you a letter Father will send you a picture. I and father and aunt did go to see you in Washington. I did play with your watch. I do love you. I saw doctor in Washington. He looked at my eyes. I can read stories in my book. I can write and spell and count. good girl. My sister can walk and run. We do have fun with Jumbo. Prince is not good dog. He can not get birds. Rat did kill baby pigeons. I am sorry. Rat does not know wrong. I and mother and teacher will go to Boston in June. I will see little blind girls. Nancy will go with me. She is a good doll. Father will buy me lovely new watch. Cousin Anna gave me a pretty doll. Her name is Allie. Good-by." Helen did make the first of her many trips to the Perkins School in the Spring of 1888. She maintained her friendship with Bell until his death in 1922. No Helen Keller letters from this early date have been offered at auction in the last twenty years.
KELLER, Helen (1880-1968). Author, lecturer . Autograph letter signed ("Helen Keller") to Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), [Tuscumbia, AL], [November 1887]. 3 pp, 8vo, written on rectos only of 3 sheets . SEVEN-YEAR-OLD HELEN KELLER TO ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL "I DO LOVE YOU" An extremely rare childhood letter from Helen Keller, written only a few months after she learned to use a grooved writing board, addressed to the inventor Alexander Graham Bell the man who had helped spark her emergence from a world of silence and darkness. Bell began his investigations into the electric transmission of the human voice as a young man and his explorations into the possibility of a telephone were a result of his close work with the deaf. As a teacher of several schools for the deaf and as a private tutor, Bell endeavored to promote the use of visible speech to aid the hearing impaired. It was his position as an activist for the education of the deaf which drew Arthur Keller to seek Bell's advice concerning his daughter Helen. Helen had been assailed by sickness when she was only nineteen months old. The extreme fever which accompanied her illness left her blind and deaf. It became obvious that she was an intelligent young girl who was severely limited by her disability and was frustrated over her inability to communicate. Arthur Keller, Helen and his sister arranged to meet with Bell in Washington. Bell was touched by the young girl's condition and immediately suggested Mr. Keller contact the Perkins School for the blind in Boston. The Perkins School assigned a young tutor, Anne Sullivan, to the case. In March of 1887, Anne moved in with the Keller family. After days of frustration over the failure to penetrate Helen's silent world, the young teacher achieved a miraculous breakthrough. Utilizing finger spelling, Helen was able to realize that the words that she spelled identified actual objects. Her vocabulary expanded rapidly and, before the end of the Summer, she had learned to use a writing board to put her words to paper. Now, only eight months after Sullivan arrived in her home and only three to four months after she first learned to write, Helen addresses a wonderfully innocent letter to Bell: "Dear Mr. Bell, I am glad to write you a letter Father will send you a picture. I and father and aunt did go to see you in Washington. I did play with your watch. I do love you. I saw doctor in Washington. He looked at my eyes. I can read stories in my book. I can write and spell and count. good girl. My sister can walk and run. We do have fun with Jumbo. Prince is not good dog. He can not get birds. Rat did kill baby pigeons. I am sorry. Rat does not know wrong. I and mother and teacher will go to Boston in June. I will see little blind girls. Nancy will go with me. She is a good doll. Father will buy me lovely new watch. Cousin Anna gave me a pretty doll. Her name is Allie. Good-by." Helen did make the first of her many trips to the Perkins School in the Spring of 1888. She maintained her friendship with Bell until his death in 1922. No Helen Keller letters from this early date have been offered at auction in the last twenty years.
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