A moving portrait of Anne Sullivan Macy, teacher of Helen Keller-and a complex, intelligent woman worthy of her own spotlight
After many years, historian and Helen Keller expert Kim Nielsen realized that she and her peers had failed Anne Sullivan Macy. While Macy is remembered primarily as Helen Keller's teacher and a straightforward educational superhero, the real story of this brilliant, complex, and misunderstood woman has never been completely told. Beyond the Miracle Worker seeks to correct this oversight, presenting a new tale about the wounded but determined woman and her quest for a successful, meaningful life.
Born in 1866 to poverty-stricken Irish immigrants, Macy suffered part of her childhood in the Massachusetts State Almshouse at Tewksbury. Seeking escape, in love with literature, and profoundly stubborn, she successfully fought to gain an education at the Perkins School for the Blind. She went on to teach Helen Keller, who became a loyal and lifelong friend. As Macy floundered with her own blindness, ill health, depression, and marital strife in her later years, she came to lean on her former student for emotional, physical, and economic support.
Based on privately held primary source material-including materials at both the American Foundation for the Blind and the Perkins School for the Blind-Beyond the Miracle Worker is revelatory and absorbing, unraveling one of the best known and least understood friendships of the twentieth century.
By:
Kim E. Nielsen
Imprint: Beacon Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 230mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 21mm
Weight: 437g
ISBN: 9780807050507
ISBN 10: 0807050504
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 September 2018
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Chapter 1 Feeding Hills Chapter 2 Tewksbury Almshouse Chapter 3 Perkins, 1880-1885: Part One Chapter 4 Perkins, 1880-1886: Part Two Chapter 5 Becoming a Teacher Chapter 6 Tuscumbia, 1888-1891 Chapter 7 The Battle for Helen, Round 1, 1891-1984 Chapter 8 The Battle for Helen, Round 2, 1894-1900 Chapter 9 Radcliffe, 1900-1904 Chapter 10 John, 1904-1914 Chapter 11 On the Road, 1914-1924 Chapter 12 The American Foundation for the Blind, 1924-1930 Chapter 13 Concluding, 1930-1936 Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index
Reviews for Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller
A remarkable story of a vulnerable woman in a culture that allowed women neither freedom nor power. Still, somehow Anne, an almost blind orphan living in a poorhouse, managed to secure an education and carve out an independent life for herself and her student, Helen Keller. Anne Sullivan Macy is a feminist hero.--Mary Pipher, author of @lt;i@gt;Reviving Ophelia@lt;/i@gt; and @lt;i@gt;Seeking Peace@lt;/i@gt;@lt;br@gt;@lt;br@gt; A considerate yet equitable biography of a complex woman whose singular contributions to the burgeoning field of education for the blind have often been misjudged. --@lt;i@gt;Booklist@lt;/i@gt;@lt;br@gt;@lt;br@gt; Nielsen overcomes all the obstacles her recalcitrant subject throws in her path, and creates a portrait of Sullivan's life that is complex with all its contradictions and inconsistencies. --Georgina Kleege, @lt;i@gt;Disability Studies Quarterly@lt;/i@gt;@lt;br@gt;@lt;br@gt; Engaging and excellently researched . . . Nielsen shows how tragic Annie's 'secr
