COMPLETE [SOLO] The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller - Leni

[Teabender]

That's a good story, thank you for sharing it! I think I read somewhere that Miss Sullivan had a very hard life before she received her education and became Helen's teacher, and it wouldn't surprise me if she experienced conditions that were that bad. It would explain how she was able to be so patient and determined with Helen.

Based on the famous "water" scene I watched on YouTube, The Miracle Worker looks like a powerful film indeed.

Next chapter finally, in which Helen recommends many books: https://librivox.org/uploads/leni/storyofmylife_21_keller_128kb.mp3

Duration: 24:13

[msfry]

PL Notes Chapter 21

12:18 Gutenberg text says "One could have traveled round the word many times, but it seemed to me that it should say world, which I verified in the Internet Archive scan of the book.
It seems worth correcting.

https://archive.org/details/storyofmylife0000kell_k6l3/page/110/mode/2up?q=labyrinthine+mazes+

Otherwise a glorious chapter, a literary tour de force, my favorite so far!

One of many quotes I like: "how a few great rulers, earthly Titans, put everything under their feet, and with a decisive word opened the gates of happiness for millions and closed them upon millions more: how different nations pioneered in art and knowledge and broke ground for the mightier growths of coming ages; how civilization underwent as it were, the holocaust of a degenerate age, and rose again, like the Phoenix, among the nobler sons of the North; and how by liberty, tolerance and education the great and the wise have opened the way for the salvation of the whole world."

[Teabender]

Thanks for checking that! "Round the world" makes way more sense. I've re-done that bit at 12:18.

I enjoyed this one too. It's interesting to me what educated people at this time were expected to know and read. And I really need to read Little Lord Fauntleroy at some point.

[msfry]

Thanks for checking that! "Round the world" makes way more sense. I've re-done that bit at 12:18.

I enjoyed this one too. It's interesting to me what educated people at this time were expected to know and read. And I really need to read Little Lord Fauntleroy at some point.

Gutenberg books are mostly converted from scanned texts, and OCR is notorious for making little errors of this kind. Whenever possible I either read from a direct book scan on IA, or see if they have a more reliable text I can check questionable text against. When a project is finished, I usually let Gutenberg know of any errors I found, and they are very good about fixing them.

Little Lord Fauntleroy is on my bucket list too. There are 3 iterations of it recorded on LV. Somethng to listen to while cooking dinner.

[Teabender]

Happy Halloween!

Chapter 22 is ready: https://librivox.org/uploads/leni/storyofmylife_22_keller_128kb.mp3

Duration: 24:16

Thanks for the tip about checking scanned texts! I spotted a couple of typos in this chapter and reported them to Gutenberg.

[msfry]

Happy Halloween to you too. Meant to tell you last week when I watched it, PBS is running a special called

American Masters
Becoming Helen Keller

The web version is here for a few weeks or months, or if you are a member of PBS, you can stream it anytime on your Roku box.
http://app.public.pbs.org/e/es?s=2143&e=2503317&elqTrackId=6ca4995811d34d779f295efa93903dbb&elqTrack=false&elq=546e983e2f7c48c48168f8aa75ffbaf8&elqaid=4734&elqat=1

Lots of pictures of Helen and Annie as they grew older and travelled the world . . . . . quite an amazing story, but bumpy, and surprisingly, not entirely admired by the deaf/blind community.

[Teabender]

Thanks for sharing this, just started watching! Looks really interesting, and it's nice to see video clips of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.

[msfry]

Chapter 22 is PL OK.
Only one chapter to go. Boo Hoo! This one is my favorite so far tho I'm not sure why, they are all so good.

[Teabender]

Happy holidays! Sorry I've been so slow, but here's the final chapter at last: https://librivox.org/uploads/leni/storyofmylife_23_keller_128kb.mp3

Duration: 17:04

I almost can't believe the project is so close to the end. Helen Keller ended her story with a chapter of gratitude, and on that note I want to thank you both! I felt a little unsure about what I was doing in the beginning, but both you and Leni made me feel like I was in good hands.

Michele, thank you for proof-listening and for your advice on how to make my recordings better. I also enjoyed our discussions and appreciated the link to the documentary about Helen Keller. I enjoyed Helen's story before, but now I feel like I have a much greater appreciation for her and all that she accomplished than I did before. She really is an inspiration.

[msfry]

Ok, M'Lady. 23 is PL OK, and this project is complete. I've enjoyed our conversations enormously and am so proud to have been a part of this project. You have done an outstanding job.

I find it almost too hard to believe that Helen, both deaf and blind, met so many persons of renown, had so many rich experiences, and wrote so much about it so vividly, by the age of 23. I find myself asking: Is this a hoax? Can it be real? I am absolutely dying of curiosity to read the second half of the book which might explain it -- "With Her Letters (1887-1901) And Supplementary Account of Her Education, Including Passages from the Reports and Letters of her Teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, By John Albert Macy"'

Are you sure you don't want to include this material? Or, are you considering doing a second volume, in which case this project could be labeled Volume 1 of 2 and the summary could point to Volume 2? It sounds so enticing, someone surely should record this.

Editor's Preface
This book is in three parts. The first two, Miss Keller's story and the extracts from her letters, form a complete account of her life as far as she can give it. Much of her education she cannot explain herself, and since a knowledge of that is necessary to an understanding of what she has written, it was thought best to supplement her autobiography with the reports and letters of her teacher, Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan. The addition of a further account of Miss Keller's personality and achievements may be unnecessary; yet it will help to make clear some of the traits of her character and the nature of the work which she and her teacher have done.

For the third part of the book the Editor is responsible, though all that is valid in it he owes to authentic records and to the advice of Miss Sullivan

[Teabender]

Thank you! So enjoyed working with you on this.

It's hard for me to imagine even a seeing and hearing person going through the kind of gruelling education that Helen described, but I guess the expectations were very high (not quite as many distractions back then too, I'll bet!). My husband has been reading biographies about people like Teddy Roosevelt, which often include samples of their writing, and he said it's astonishing how well even children in the 19th century could write. They'd put a lot of us to shame.

Given the scandal about the plagiarism, I imagine there would have been an outcry if it had turned out that Helen was not what she appeared to be. I suspect the fallout from the Frost King incident would have taught Helen and Miss Sullivan to be cautious about what they claimed, especially about things that could easily be disproved (who she actually knew, school records, etc.).

I hadn't thought of doing the additional material, but maybe! Especially if this one could be available while the other volumes are in progress. Would I need to re-record the intros for each chapter?

[msfry]

I hadn't thought of doing the additional material, but maybe! Especially if this one could be available while the other volumes are in progress. Would I need to re-record the intros for each chapter?

I took the time to break down the rest of the book into sections and do a rough word count: 97, 847 words divided by about 160 WPM = 10 hours of finished recording. That is a big project. Also, briefly scanning parts of it, I'm not sure all of it is as "charming" as what you've got now.

II. LETTERS(1887-1901) 36,435 words
INTRODUCTION
Letters

III: A SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNT OF HELEN KELLER'S LIFE AND EDUCATION
CHAPTER I. The Writing of the Book 1001 words
CHAPTER II. PERSONALITY 4656 words
CHAPTER III. EDUCATION 36,424 words
CHAPTER IV. SPEECH 3750 words
CHAPTER V. LITERARY STYLE 15,000 words

It might be really cool if this material became a second book, with Helen's letters recorded in your voice, and have a second person record the stuff written by the editor. I'd be willing to BC that project if you didn't want to.

In any case, if you/we decide to do a second book, it would be great if the Title of this one was changed to The Story of My Life, Part 1, and the summary contained language something like "This is Part 1 of a 2 part book. The second part contains Helens' letters and a supplementary account of her life and education.
Then the title of the second book could read The Story of My Life, Part 2, by Helen Keller and John Albert Macy
The summary of that one would include: With Her Letters (1887-1901) And Supplementary Account of Her Education, Including Passages from the Reports and Letters of her Teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, By John Albert Macy

Lots to think about, girlie! What are your thoughts?

[Teabender]

Thanks for looking into it further and breaking it down. I'm not quite in a place to take charge of it, but I'd be happy to contribute. If you're willing to BC the project, I'm up for recording Helen's letters.

Aside from giving this project a new title ("The Story of My Life, Part 1"), and adding the "This is part 1 of a 2 part book" part to the summary, what else should I do next to help get it going?

[Leni]

Starting cataloging here!

[Leni]

This project is now complete! All files can be found at https://librivox.org/the-story-of-my-life-version-3-by-helen-keller/