Helen Selsdon

On the eve of her 80th birthday in June 1960, Helen Keller gave an interview looking back on her life. She spoke with Ann Carnahan, a journalist, about her "secrets of joyous living." Question: What is the greatest virtue a person may have or cultivate? Answer: Love. Cultivate love for love is the light that gives the eye to see great and noble things. Love is true joy. Question: I notice, Miss Keller, that you use joy very often. Why? Answer: It is almost my favorite word…

Wherever you may be and whatever you are doing— If you are bathed in sunshine or wrapped in snow— take a few moments to enjoy and reflect on Helen Keller's wise words: "It is beyond a doubt that everyone should have time for some special delight, if only five minutes each day to seek out a lovely flower or cloud or a star, or learn a verse or brighten another’s dull task. What is the use of such terrible diligence as many tire themselves out with, if they always postpone their exchange of…

Yesterday was the first day of the Annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. At a time of global concern over economic disparity and cultural polarization it is interesting to read a letter that Helen Keller wrote in 1922. In this letter, excerpted below, Keller sends her regrets to the Rand School in New York City (now the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives), saying that she is unable to attend an event. The letter conveys her strong support for the school’s…

E Q U A L I T Y Again and again down through the ages humanity has shown itself equal to its dream of justice. Helen Keller On Martin Luther King, Junior's birthday we salute all those who have fought and continue to fight for a more inclusive and equitable world. Image: Helen Keller's hand photographed signing the letters e, q, u, a, l, i, t and y of the manual alphabet.

In The Approach of Christmas Helen Keller vividly describes an early childhood memory of Christmas. It was December 1887, a momentous year for Helen Keller. In March of that year Anne Sullivan came to Tuscumbia, Alabama to teach Helen. Just a few weeks later, Anne successfully taught her young pupil to communicate using the manual sign language. Helen was just six years old. Many years later, Helen described the joy of her "first" Christmas in December of that year, as well as her subsequent…

Sixty-seven years ago, on December 16th 1947, Helen Keller gave this speech to the New York Commission for the Blind. Its power resonates today... Dear Friends, It is an honor to salute you on International Day. The New York Commission for the Blind is glad to have you see that the sightless can do work worthy of their dignity as human beings – they can earn their daily bread and produce goods both excellent and useful. Through the work of their hands they are able to give assistance…

In honor of Veterans Day, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is proud to reflect on the work of its most famous employee — Helen Keller. She joined the Foundation in 1924 and remained with us until she died in 1968. Keller was a vocal advocate for returning servicemen. On behalf of AFB, between 1942 and 1944, she supported Senator Robert Wagner’s efforts to secure funding for the rehabilitation, special vocational training, placement, and supervision of blind persons, including those…

Last week, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Almost fifty years ago, there was a movement afoot to secure nominations for Helen Keller. Keller did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but the letters that were received from around the world are a wonderful reminder of this extraordinary humanitarian. Two are excerpted here below: Letter from S. T. Dajani, Chairman, Arab Blind Organization, Jerusalem, to the Secretary-General World Council for the…

As world leaders gather for the United Nations General Assembly, it is interesting to read the speech that Keller wrote for the United Nations in 1950. "Dear Friends: Truly it is an exalted privilege for me to address such a splendid gathering representing the humanitarian public spirit of world citizenship. As United Nations Week brings home to us the far-speeding activities of our global Prometheus, it is fitting that we hail an organization whose final triumph is bound up with the…