Helen Keller would probably be unknown to the world had she not lost both her sight and hearing at nineteen months of age. Keller's achievement in learning to communicate, in acquiring an education, and in the simple fact that she enjoyed the everyday pleasures of life made her a nationally recognized figure as a child and an international celebrity as an adult. In her lifetime she was better known as a prodigy than as a person, more for the fact that she had opinions than for the nature of her opinions. As she often remarked in frustration, her public only allowed her one subject: herself. Through the efforts of her teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, Keller was able to overcome the disadvantages of a deaf-blind condition, attend college, and lead a remarkably normal life. She fought against the public image of a curiosity, however, in order to advance the...