The World I Live In
Written by Helen Keller
Narrated by LibriVox Community
5/5
()
About this audiobook
The World I Live In by Helen Keller is a collection of essays that poignantly tells of her impressions of the world, through her sense of touch, smell, her imagination and dreams.
My hand is to me what your hearing and sight together are to you. In large measure we travel the same highways, read the same books, speak the same language, yet our experiences are different. All my comings and goings turn on the hand as on a pivot. It is the hand that binds me to the world of men and women. The hand is my feeler with which I reach through isolation and darkness and seize every pleasure, every activity that my fingers encounter. With the dropping of a little word from another's hand into mine, a slight flutter of the fingers, began the intelligence, the joy, the fullness of my life. Helen Keller, quoted from her essay, The Seeing Hand (Summary from text and Laura Caldwell)
Helen Keller
Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American author, activist, and lecturer. Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Keller suffered a sudden illness at nineteen months old that left her both deaf and blind. Her parents brought her to Baltimore to consult with Alexander Graham Bell, then a teacher for deaf children. He referred them to the Perkins Institute for the Blind, which paired Keller with Anne Sullivan, a visually impaired instructor who would remain by Helen’s side for the next half century as her governess and companion. With Sullivan’s help, she learned to read and write, as well as to speak using the Tadoma method. Between 1888 and 1900, Keller attended specialist schools for the deaf and blind before being admitted to Radcliffe College, then Harvard University’s school for women. In 1903, she published her autobiography, The Story of My Life, with the help of Sullivan and her husband John. A year later, Keller became the first deafblind person to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts. She joined the Socialist Party of America in 1909 and spent the next twelve years speaking and writing on topics such as women’s suffrage, pacifism, and workers’ rights. In addition, she joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1915. Keller was also a prominent activist for African American civil rights, supporting the NAACP and joining the American Civil Liberties Union. From 1924 on, she dedicated herself to lecturing and organizing for the American Foundation for the Blind, traveling to thirty-five countries and across the United States to speak on behalf of those living with blindness. Major written works include Out of the Dark (1913), a collection of essays on socialism, and My Religion (1927), a spiritual autobiography expressing her relationship with the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
More audiobooks from Helen Keller
A Rare Recording of Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, and Polly Thompson Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Story of My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Life: The Classic Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The World I Live In
Related audiobooks
The Story of My Life (Version 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tolstoy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Woman of No Importance Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Behind a Mask, or a Woman's Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leaves of Grass Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying (Among Other Things) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5David Copperfield Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Be Not Proud Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWalking Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Woman in the Nineteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential T.S. Eliot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon Quixote - Vol. 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Room with a View Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bartleby, the Scrivener (version 2) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn Keats: Selected Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Swimmer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina (Dole translation) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Side of Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUlysses Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5As You Like It Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Volumes 1 & 2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Around the World in Seventy-Two Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Awakening Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sons and Lovers Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5War and Peace, Vol. 1: Dole Translation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death of Ivan Ilyitch Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Biography & Memoir For You
Fairy Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twisted Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Blood and Ash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Local Woman Missing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divine Rivals: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Later Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The World I Live In
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Keller's book is an exploration in wonder and fascination. She takes you through each of the senses opening wide your sense of gratitude. This book is a must read for our generation.
As an intellectual of sorts it really made me think: The intellectuals trouble with gratitude is due to a tendency for deep thoughts to disembody our minds from the world and even ourselves. If our body or the world request acknowledgement they seem like an intruder messing up our day. The value we have for our thoughts and the worlds they produce actively reduce our body and the world to a status of 'head transport'.
For example: What if the commute could be full of value rather than road rage? Well, for that you'd decide to make value adjustments. When frustration kicks in determine to make adjustments and again. If the music is good give more value to your ears, if the scenery is good, give more value to your eyes, if the seat is comfortable and so on.
The point: Give yourself more options to enjoy your life and you will begin to overflow with gratitude.1 person found this helpful