TLS, signed in her usual indelible pencil “Helen Keller,” three pages, 7 x 9, November 16, 1933. Letter written from South Arcan, Muir of Ord, Ross-shire, Scotland, and addressed to a childhood friend, Helen Freeman. In part, “What an adorable touch-picture that name conjures up in my mind of the sweet child who manifested such joy in learning to spell to me! While the pleasure of your letter, so bright with remembrance, is fresh, I must thank you for writing it. I have only not answered it sooner by reason of the three thousand miles over which the letter has traveled to find me here in the pastoral seclusion of the Scottish Highlands.
This is one of the rare calm periods in my life when good and beautiful come back to me. In retrospect I feel you all near me --- your dear mother, Carrie, who so charmingly spelled all that she thought would interest the little chatterbox I was, Frank, who was too bashful to kiss me, Ethel, you and myself waiting behind the door for Dr. [Edward Everett] Hale to come in. O the beams of joy and ripples of merriment that ran through our playtime…I remember, too, how you dragged me with breathless excitement to safety when the run-away horse rushed towards us. Those were unforgettable, carefree days.
This little old farm-house is enlivened by the antics of three darling dogs…they all insist on sitting with me on a small sofa covered with sheep-skins. At first I was kept on the jump to prevent them from tearing the wool, they were so positive it was a live sheep…When my Teacher, our secretary Miss Thomson and I sailed for Scotland last June, we intended to return to New York in October, as I expected to start a money-raising campaign for the blind, but events have turned out differently. We three found to our chagrin that we needed to be under medical care this winter, and we decided to withdraw temporarily from the currents of midstream into the peace of the Scottish hills. We do not know how long we shall stay here, but we have made the ‘wee housie’ snug with fires, books, the companionship of our doggies and a comfortable sense of remoteness from the upheavals of a troubled world…
I wonder if you have read my teacher’s biography by Nella Braddy…It is a book charged with tragedy, but it is illumined too by a dauntless spirit that goes forth like light…Dr. Hale would have liked it I know.”
Accompanied by the original transmittal envelope hand-addressed by Polly Thomson, Keller's secretary and assistant. In fine condition, with vertical crease to right side of each page and expected mailing folds, one passing through Keller’s signature.
As well as recollecting her “carefree” childhood, Keller makes special note of Braddy, who assisted Keller in the creation of her book, Midstream, and later was allowed to write the biography of her “teacher”—Anne Sullivan—as Keller notes here. The bond between the three women grew so great, in fact, that Braddy later served as a consultant on William Gibson's play and film, The Miracle Worker. A fresh, first-person look into the ordinary childhood—one filled with innocent playtime and dreams of a first kiss—of a woman who would go on to inspire countless others through perseverance. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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