Helen Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880. At 19 months old, she became very sick with what’s believed to have been either scarlet fever or meningitis. As a result of this illness, Keller lost her sight and hearing.

In 1887, Anne Sullivan was hired to be Helen’s teacher, bringing a large amount of knowledge to the table when teaching a deaf-blind person. Before they met, Anne had been lobbying for a deaf-blind woman in Alabama named Laura Bridgman, taught by Charles Sanders Peirce.

Helen learned quickly and soon could communicate with Anne through fingerspelling, letter boards, and expressions. At the time, people thought teaching a deaf-blind person was impossible, but Keller later said, “Miss Sullivan’s fingers are my eyes, her voice is my ears.”

At 22, she began studying at Radcliffe College, where she learned to speak, read Braille, and became a socialist. At that time, Braille was considered to be “more effective for use by the blind” than large print.

Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe in 1904. She went on to study at The Cambridge School for Young Ladies before beginning her career as an author, political activist, and lecturer.

As a political activist, Helen Keller was an ardent pacifist and socialist. “During the two World Wars, she worked for pacifist causes, promoting woman suffrage as a way to keep women from being forced into undesirable situations by men sent off to war.”

In 1916 Keller began lobbying Congress in Washington D.C., “urging members of Congress to support President Woodrow Wilson’s proposal for world peace.” Keller argued that “the League of Nations should have the power to prevent future wars by allowing an international body to mediate disputes before they escalate into armed conflict. Her efforts culminated in 1920 with the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations.”

Keller, however, became disenchanted with the League of Nations and later said it was “incapable” of enforcing its rulings.

As a lecturer, she became one of the best-paid people in America during that era. Helen’s view on socialism is made clear when she says, “I am for Socialism. I think we all must be social in many ways. Only I mean by Socialism the kind of socialism which means brotherhood of man, economic, and political equality.”

In 1920 she wrote The Unconquered (1920), “a history of the blind in antiquity and the Middle Ages,” and in 1921, it was adapted into a movie, “Intolerance.” Keller wrote several more books before she died on June 1, 1968. At her death, she was involved with Helen Keller International (then known as the Foundation for Visually Impaired Children), which is still in existence today.

Helen Keller had an estimated IQ of 180. She has been called “The most inspirational woman of the 19th Century” by the Louisville Herald newspaper. In addition, she was included in a list of 24 most remarkable women in history from the BBC and Time Magazine. She was also more admired than all United States presidents combined.