KELLER, HELEN. (1880-1968). American author and lecturer. SP. (“Helen Keller”). 1p. Large oblong 4to. Wrentham, c.1905. A stunning sepia group photograph of Helen Keller additionally signed by her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936) (“Anne S. Macy”) and Sullivan’s husband, literary critic John Macy (1877-1932) (“John Macy”). John is seated in a chair, holding a manuscript and gazing into the camera. Sullivan stands behind him reading over his shoulder and Keller is perched on the window sill, as John signs into her hand. The photograph was taken inside the house in Wrentham, Massachusetts that Helen and Anne purchased together in 1903 and continued to live in after the Sullivan’s separated in 1914. As a young girl, Sullivan contracted trachoma which diminished her eyesight and was treated at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, where she regained much of her sight and obtained an education. The skills she learned at Perkins made her the perfect governess for Keller who had been without sight, hearing and speech since the age of nineteen months. At the prompting of Alexander Graham Bell, Sullivan was introduced to Keller who, during fifty years of devoted service, assisted Keller in overcoming her infirmities. Keller graduated from Radcliffe in 1904 and published her autobiography The Story of My Life, edited by John Macy, a Harvard professor and literary critic. Helen Keller did much to improve the lot of the deaf and blind through her books and lectures around the world, and was accompanied by Sullivan until her teacher’s death in 1936. The story of Sullivan and Keller’s relationship is most famously portrayed in the play and movie The Miracle Worker. Attractively framed and signed on the lower blank matte. Rare.

Item #15739