Miss Spitfire
Page 15
H-e-l-e-n, I spell into her listening palm. The feel of it is like a prayer between my fingers.
T-e-a-c-h-e-r, she answers.
Teacher. She’s only begun to grasp the breadth of it, and already that one word stirs my very bones. My heart falls open before her, ready to be fashioned by her two small hands.
H-e-l-e-n a-n-d T-e-a-c-h-e-r, I spell back. I hardly know how to begin telling her what or how much this means.
But I shall try. However long it takes, I shall try.
AFTERWORD
About Annie and Helen
Anne Sullivan was twenty years old on the day she met Helen Keller—a day Helen would celebrate ever after as her “soul’s birthday.” Within a month Annie had broken through to Helen by making her understand the miracle of language. From that moment at the water pump until Annie’s death in 1936, Helen called Annie by no other name but “Teacher.”
For the next fifty years Annie rarely left Helen’s side. Her pupil would become an international celebrity, lecturer, writer, and activist, while Annie was often overlooked and literally pushed aside. In spite of it all, her loyalty never faltered. Anchored by Helen’s unwavering devotion, Annie remained capricious, contrary, lively, and courageous almost to the end.
In 1904 Helen became the first deaf-blind person to earn a college degree, but it was Annie who had spelled four years of classroom lectures and textbooks into Helen’s hands. While she was still in college, Ladies’ Home Journal commissioned Helen to write her autobiography. The book became a classic, and its editor, John Macy, became Annie’s husband. For almost nine years the three lived together as a family. From 1913 until 1923 Helen and Annie toured the United States and Canada, giving speeches and lectures, and performing on the vaudeville circuit. In 1918 they even made a silent film, called Deliverance.
Beginning in 1916 Annie’s health began to falter. Her eyesight dimmed, and she developed what doctors feared was tuberculosis—the same disease that had killed Jimmie at Tewksbury. For the first and only time in their lives Helen and Annie were separated for five months when Annie was sent to Puerto Rico, in hopes of recovering her strength. It was only a temporary fix.
During the 1920s, as Helen campaigned tirelessly for the blind, Polly Thomson, hired in 1914 as the pair’s secretary, slowly began to take over Annie’s position as Helen’s public companion. By 1933 Annie was virtually blind and growing frail, though she told Helen, “I am trying so hard to live for you.”
The last words Annie spoke, recorded by Polly Thomson on October 15, 1936, were of her brother Jimmie, and then Helen: “God help her to live without me when I go.” Soon after, Annie slipped into a coma; she died five days later, with Helen holding her hand.
Upon her death in 1936 Anne Sullivan became the first woman to be interred in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, on her own merits. Monuments to her memory stand around the world—even the somewhat dubious honor of a building and sculpture in her name at Tewksbury. In 1932 Helen had persuaded her to accept an honorary degree from Temple University.
Though the loss of her beloved teacher shook Helen to her core, she would live another thirty years, writing books (including her own biography of Annie, called simply Teacher), giving speeches, and raising funds for the blind until she was eighty years old, outliving even Polly Thomson. Helen Keller died in 1968, just short of her eighty-eighth birthday.
To the world Helen Keller will always be something of a miracle. But to Helen, Annie Sullivan, “Teacher,” was the world. As Helen herself wrote:
Teacher, and yet again
Teacher—and that was all.
It will be my answer
In the dark
When Death calls.
About This Book
During her first year in Tuscumbia, Annie wrote regularly to her housemother at Perkins. Though the originals were lost to a house fire in 1946, extensive excerpts of Annie’s letters survive in the original and restored editions of Helen’s autobiography The Story of My Life. The bulk of this novel is based on those letters, and they are the source of the quotes at the head of each chapter. For the stories of Annie and Jimmie’s life in Tewksbury, I referred almost exclusively to Anne Sullivan Macy, a biography written by Nella Braddy Henney just three years before Annie’s death. A close friend to both Annie and Helen, Nella was the first person to whom Annie confided the stories of her years at the almshouse; even Helen herself knew nothing of the shame of Tewksbury until 1926.
It’s rather a presumptuous thing to write someone else’s story—even more so to try to write it in her own voice. The best any author of this sort of book can hope to do is present the truth as he or she sees it. I am grateful that Annie herself knew this and said so to Nella Braddy Henney: “The truth of a matter is not what I tell you about it, but what you divine in regard to it.” I have kept this thought in my mind during the whole writing of this book. What you have read is what I have divined and what I believe to be emotionally true. In her own way, I believe Annie would approve.
Although I was as faithful as possible to the historical record, there is one intentional wrinkle in the time line I must confess to: “Bessie’s Song to Her Doll,” the rhyme about a doll called Matilda Jane, was not written by Lewis Carroll until 1893—a full six years after this novel is set. However, the poem was so appropriate to the story I just couldn’t resist including it.
—S. M.
More Information
BOOKS
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (restored editions including Annie’s letters have been published by Modern Library and W. W. Norton)
Anne Sullivan Macy by Nella Braddy Henney
Teacher by Helen Keller
Helen and Teacher by Joseph P. Lash
The World I Live In by Helen Keller
Helen Keller: Rebellious Spirit by Laurie Lawlor
ONLINE
Perkins online museum, Anne Sullivan history section: www.perkins.org/museum/section.php?id=214
American Foundation for the Blind’s Anne Sullivan Macy museum: www.afb.org/annesullivan/
Tewksbury Historical Society archives, Tewksbury Almshouse section: http://www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/ StateHospital/index.html (includes an excerpt from Anne Sullivan Macy)
AFB’s Helen Keller museum: www.afb.org/Section. asp?SectionID=1
AFB’s Braille Bug, an interactive kids’ museum of Helen Keller: www.afb.org/braillebug/hkmuseum.asp (a clip of the only existing recording of Annie’s voice can be found atwww.afb.org/braillebug/ hkgallery.asp?tpid=3)
Ivy Green’s official website: www. helenkellerbirthplace.org
VIDEOS
Helen Keller in HerStory (originally released in the 1950s as The Unconquered)
The Miracle Worker (I particularly recommend the 1962 version, starring Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke)
Chronology
April 14, 1866—Johanna “Annie” Sullivan is born in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts.
1874—Annie’s mother dies.
February 22, 1876—Annie and Jimmie enter Tewksbury.
May 30, 1876—Jimmie dies.
June 27, 1880—Helen Keller is born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
October 7, 1880—Annie enters Perkins Institution for the Blind.
February 1882—Helen becomes deaf and blind.
August 1886—The Kellers write to Perkins, requesting a teacher.
March 3, 1887—Annie arrives in Tuscumbia and meets Helen.
April 5,1887—Helen learns “water.”
1900—Helen enters Radcliffe College.
1902—Annie and Helen meet John Macy.
1903—Helen publishes The Story of My Life.
1904—Helen graduates cum laude from Radcliffe College.
May 2, 1905—Annie marries John Macy.
1913-16—Annie and Helen tour the North American lecture circuit.
1914—Annie and John Macy separate; Polly Thomson is hired.
1916—Helen nearly elopes; Annie’s
health begins to fail, and she spends five months in Puerto Rico.
1918—Annie and Helen travel to Hollywood to film Deliverance.
1919-23—Annie and Helen perform on the vaudeville circuit.
1929—Annie’s right eye is removed.
1932—John Macy dies; Annie’s health sinks further, and she becomes virtually blind.
February 16,1932—Annie and Helen receive honorary degrees from Temple University.
1933—Anne Sullivan Macy is published.
October 20, 1936—Annie dies.
1955—Helen publishes Teacher.
1960—Polly Thomson dies.
June 1, 1968—Helen dies.
Sources Consulted
BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Braddy, Nella. Anne Sullivan Macy: The Story Behind Helen Keller. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1933.
Gibson, William. The Miracle Worker. New York: Bantam, 1960.
Gritter, Elizabeth. The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman. New York: Parrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2001.
Harrity, Richard, and Ralph G. Martin. The Three Lives of Helen Keller. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962.
Herrmann, Dorothy. Helen Keller: A Life. New York: Knopf, 1998.
Howe, Maud, and Florence Howe Hall. Laura Bridgman: Dr. Howe’s Famous Pupil and What He Taught Her. Boston: Little, Brown, 1904.
Keirsey, David, and Marilyn Bates. Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types. Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis, 1984.
Keller, Helen. Helen Keller’s Journal. New York: Doubleday, 1938.
-----. Midstream: My Later Life. New York: Doubleday, 1929.
-----. The Story of My Life. Edited by James Berger. New York: Modern Library, 2003.
-----The Story of My Life: The Restored Classic. Edited by Roger Shattuck, with Dorothy Herrmann. New York: W.W.Norton, 2003.
-----. Teacher. New York: Doubleday, 1955.
-----. The World I Live In. New York: Century, 1908.
Konigsburg, E. L. Talktalk: A Children’s Book Author Speaks to Grown-ups. New York: Atheneum, 1995.
Lamson, Mary Swift. Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman. Boston: New England Publishing, 1879.
Lash, Joseph P. Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy. New York: Delacorte, 1980.
Paterson, Katherine. Gates of Excellence: On Reading and Writing Books for Children. New York: Elsevier/Nelson Books, 1981.
Percy, Walker. The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1975.
Tilney, Frederick. “A Comparative Sensory Analysis of Helen Keller and Laura Bridgman.” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, June 1929, 1227-69.
FILMS
Helen Keller: In Her Story. VHS. Directed and produced by Nancy Hamilton. N.p.:Hen’s Tooth Video, 1992.
The Miracle Worker. DVD. N.p.: Playfilm Productions, 1962.
ONLINE SOURCES
Brown, Jonathan, et al. “Eighth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the State Almshouse at Tewksbury.” Boston, MA: William White, 1861. http://www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/
StateHospital/index.html (accessed March 24, 2006).
Butler, Benjamin. “Argument Before the Tewksbury Investigation Committee.” Boston, MA: Democratic Central Committee, 1883. http://www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/
StateHospital/index.html (accessed March 24, 2006).
“Cartoons and Comments.” Puck Magazine, August 1, 1883: 342. http://www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/
StateHospital/index.html (accessed March 24, 2006).
Davis, R. T., et al. “Fifth Annual Report of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity of the State of Massachusetts.” Boston, MA: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1884. http://www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/
StateHospital/index.html (accessed March 25, 2006).
Leonard, Clara T. “The Present Condition of Tewksbury.” Boston, MA: Franklin Press, 1883. http://www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/
StateHospital/index.html (accessed March 24, 2006).
‘The Record of Benjamin F. Butler Since His Election as Governor of Massachusetts.” Boston, MA: 1883. http://www.tewksburyhistoricalsociety.org/Archives/
StateHospital/index.html (accessed March 25, 2006).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I owe a debt of thanks to a great many people:
All those who encouraged this story, and the ones that came before it: Aunt Alice, Miriam Burkhart, Judy & Rich Dugger, Richard Hill, Sharon Lark, Judy Lopus, William Menter, Aleda Morr, Mary Payne, Linda Pavonetti, Christine Rowley, Cynthia Sanborn, and the staff of the “old” Kezar Library.
My early readers: Carol Azizian, Ruth Burns, Collyn & Daryl DeBano, Cherrill Flynn, and Sue Sirgany.
For their support and general bookishness, my fine friends at Halfway Down the Stairs: Linda Brick, Sue Lorenzen, Cam Mannino, Martha Nelson, and Pat Penney.
Casey Leigh Floyd, who writes the best post-rejection consolation e-mails ever!
Kelly DiPucchio and Sue Stauffacher, for leading me to my agent.
Erica Stahler, who saved me from a handful of embarrassing errors, and Kim Nielsen for giving me a passing grade on my “Annie Sullivan Final” with her insightful reading of the manuscript.
Wendy Schmalz and Justin Chanda, my agent and my editor, who never made me feel like a rookie.
Donna Jo Napoli, who has been a Teacher to me.
And Mom & Dad, who took me to Meadow Brook Theatre to see The Miracle Worker, and then said, “Let’s go to Alabama.”
The earliest surviving photo of Helen Keller, taken at age seven. No pictures of Helen before the arrival of Annie Sullivan are known to exist. Courtesy of the American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller Archives
The earliest known photo of Anne Sullivan, taken in 1881, within a year of her arrival at the Perkins Institution. She was fifteen years old. Courtesy of the Perkins School for the Blind
Anne Sullivan, photographed on August 1, 1887, a few months after her breakthrough with Helen. Courtesy of the Perkins School for the Blind
Annie and Helen fingerspelling together in 1890. This is one of a handful of photos showing Helen’s protruding left eye. For many years, she was carefully photographed in profile to hide the deformity. Courtesy of the Perkins School for the Blind
The main gate to the old Tewksbury State Almshouse grounds as it looks today. The administration building has become the Massachusetts Public Health Museum.
The page of the almshouse ledger recording Jimmie and Annie’s arrival at Tewksbury and outlining a few facts about their family life. A notation of Jimmie’s death on May 30, 1876, was later squeezed in between lines.
Workers in the almshouse laundry. Courtesy of the Tewksbury Historical Society
The Perkins Institution for the Blind, as it appeared in 1904. Courtesy of the Perkins School for the Blind
A classroom at Perkins, circa 1890. The U-shaped arrangement of desks was typical of Perkins. Courtesy of the Perkins School for the Blind
Ivy Green, and the little house, as they appear today. Photo by Larry Gillentine © 1995
The water pump at Ivy Green, silhouetted against the kitchen building. Photo by Sarah Miller © 2007