Janice Larsen

Perseverance: the Story of Anne Sullivan Macy (Helen Keller's Teacher) Janice Larsen

Most people know the story of Helen Keller who at the age of nineteen months had an illness that left her blind and deaf. A teacher was hired for Helen when she was six years old by the name of Anne Sullivan. Anne Sullivan (Macy) taught Helen how to communicate and acted as Helen's eyes and ears for fifty years. She guided Helen through several schools, and ultimately Helen graduated from Radcliffe College with honors. Helen Keller, with Anne by her side, achieved worldwide fame for her work on behalf of the blind. The story of Anne Sullivan (Macy) is not well known. As a child, she herself was blind as well as poor, abused by her father, and lived for five years in an almshouse (poorhouse). This biography of Anne Sullivan (Macy) tells her story as she may have told it.