At the tender age of nineteen months Helen Keller contracted a disease that severely impaired her hearing and sight. After seeking help from several people she was finally directed to the Perkins Institute for the Blind where she met Anne Sullivan a woman who would change her life. Annes unorthodox teaching methods and her steadfast determination to reach out to other people helped Helen learn to speak and read and write Braille. Eventually she became an inspirational speaker an advocate for those physically challenged a socialist pacifist and suffragist. This memoir written while Helen was a student at Radcliffe College she went on to become the first blind person to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree is an inspirational and moving account of a girl who triumphs over odds that might seem impossible to most with the help and support of her teacher Anne Sullivan.