The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-20
Books and Authors
!. NEW BOOKS.

NEW BOOKS.
THE STORY OF NY LITE By Helen Keller
With Her Letters asst -1eo1) ana supple
mentary Account OF Her Education; Etc. BY
John Albert Marcy. Illustrated. New York
Doubleday, Do, Page Co.
This is a wonderful story by q very
wonderful young woman, who when a
tiny girl endowed with keen zest for
nature, and the sweet songs Of birds, was
suddenly left by a, serious illness In the
blackness of darkness and her ears closed
against the admission of all sounds She
had merely glimpse of sunlight. green
cry, the blue dome of the sky. trees,
MOWERS, streams. and all passed away
until through the sympathetic touch of
her, teacher. Miss Sullivan, her bright
and unimpaired mind was put in COM
munication with the great outer world.
and she found that knowledge is love
and light and vision.'' Miss Keller de-
scribes these early days Of her enlight-
enment in a most interesting and pathetic
way. It was joy to her to find that
her yearning to give expression to her
thoughts inteligently could be gratif1ed.
Thru her more acute sense Of smell
and touch, she found the flowers she
loved and she exuted as truth after
truth In all its beauty flashed upon her
soul. 1t Is hard enough to be deaf alone
and blind alone, but to be both deaf and
blind as Helen is, greatly increases the
difficulties of conversation. Then came
the process of learning to read and the
study OF science, largely thru object
teaching and tactual exercises. Helen's
delight In all beautiful things was marred
by her affliction, but. in the story Of her
life and in her letters she shows that
she still derived deepest pleasure from
the odor and pressure of roses in her
hand and the feel OF downy peaches and
the touch of soft cavatinas of the leaves
stirred by fragrant breezes.
Helen went to Boston in 1888 and vis-
tied there the Perkins Institution for the
Blind and was greatly delighted to find
the children knew the manual alphabet
thereafter she spent the winter in the
north and went to her Tennessee home in
the spring: In 1890 she learned to speak,
When her affliction struck her. she was
just beginning to talk, but after that,
not being able to hear at all, she lost
the power OF speech. It was hard work
to learn She had ~to~ read her teachers
lips and to do this she depended on her
touch as she could not see.. Then she
hads to repeat the words or sentences un-
til she felt the proper ring in her own
voice. my work" she says, .was prac-
t1ce, practice, practice thru many dis
courasements and much WEAKNESS. In
1888 Helen visited the Columbian fair
ana Niagara. and was as delighted with
what she tsensed as one with full sight
and. hearing. Helen is an .omniverous
reader, and she talks much of the books
she has read. Wonderful indeed. is the
scope of her learning. This southern
girl, deaf and blind, at one time hopeless
OF the joys of life, is honored by states
| men, scientists, poets, authors and actors.
These have visited her and paid their
| tribute to her genius. She dedicates the
| story OF her life to DR.. Alexander Graham
Bell, who has taught the. deaf to speak
and enabled the listening ear to hear
speech from the Atlantic to the Rockies -
The latter portion of the book relates
to Helen Keller's personality, education,
etc., and there is an interesting sketch
of Laura Bridgman, who was by the late
| DR.. Howe brought out of the disability
of deafness and blindness as Miss Sulli-
van led Helen Keller. Several letters OF
| Miss Sullivan are given telling of her ex-
| perience as Helen's teacher.
| Impressions in Parliament" is added.
THE GREY WIG. STORIES AND NOVEL
| EtTEs. By Israel Zangwill, Author of "The
Mape,,t Mantle Of Elijah" Etc Ned York: The
Carthy. Price, $3.50. ~
! Mr.. Zangwill shows by these examples
of his storytelling abilitX that his mind
gives itself to something besides portray
ais OF the people of the Ghetto and the
| zionist propaganda. There is humor and
pathos Of a peculiarly appealing kind and
there is no symptom of any tagging OF
these qualities, which are Of a finely origi-
/ nal quality In the title story, ''The Gray
Wig" we r have the activities Of senile
pride and vanity on the part Of the brown.
wigged French ladies, with tragical re.
suit we'll wrought out. In Merely Mary
Ann" there is a wonderfully good story o1
a pretty English servant girl and her con.
centrated affection for musical lodger
who trif1ed with her and would have done
her evil had she not inherited a fortune o1
over s 100000 900, which broke the bond be
tween them-not on her part, however, fol
she wanted to black his boots after he haG
told her marriage was impossible. Mar,
Ann is a. fine, character sketch. '.rhe BIZ
Bow Mystery is q well constru, ted mur
der mystery and solution, embodying de-
cidedly original feature in the ultimate
iconfession in court, after detective inge
nuity. had confessed itself unable to solve
the mystery, by the real murderer, who
was an expert in criminology, who said h,
had undertaken the crime to prove that {
murder absolutely undiscoverable could b,
committed. There are eight stories ii
the volume. ~