Helen Keller? Anne Sullivan? Nella Braddy Henney? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: When Helen Keller was 19 months old, she lost her sight and her hearing due to an illness. Keller experienced a breakthrough in communication at the age of seven when Anne Sullivan became her teacher and companion. Apparently, Keller gave a remarkable description of her state of consciousness before this breakthrough:
I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no-world.
I have not been able to find a solid citation for this remark. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In March 1908 Helen Keller published an article titled “Sense and Sensibility (Part 2)” in “The Century Magazine” of New York. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Before my teacher came to me, I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no-world. I cannot hope to describe adequately that unconscious, yet conscious time of nothingness. I did not know that I knew aught, or that I lived or acted or desired. I had neither will nor intellect. I was carried along to objects and acts by a certain blind natural impetus. I had a mind which caused me to feel anger, satisfaction, desire.
In addition, Keller wrote:
My inner life, then, was a blank without past, present, or future, without hope or anticipation, without wonder or joy or faith.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1910 Helen Keller published the book “The World I Live In” which included the material from “The Century Magazine” article quoted above.2
In 1955 Helen Keller published a tribute book about her mentor titled “Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy”. The introduction was written by Nella Braddy Henney who was Keller’s close friend. Henney described Keller’s early life and attributed a fascinating quotation to Keller:3
Because she was deaf she became mute. Her body was otherwise unimpaired. The condition of her mind was in doubt. Some said she was an idiot. Her mother and father did not believe it, but they could not disprove it. If intelligence was there, they could not reach it; and Helen, thus cut off, became, to use her own expression, “a Phantom living in a world that was no-world.”
In October 1955 “The New York Times” published a book review of “Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy”. The review reprinted the quotation which Nella Braddy Henney attributed to Helen Keller:4
In the annals of friendship there is no more revealing story on the power of love than Helen Keller’s memoir of her teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy. Until she was 7 years old, Miss Keller felt herself “a Phantom, living in a world that was no world.”
In conclusion, Helen Keller deserves credit for the statements she wrote in “The Century Magazine” in March 1908. In 1955 a variant statement was attributed to Helen Keller by Nella Braddy Henney in the introduction to Keller’s book about her teacher.
Image Notes: Portrait of Helen Keller circa 1904 from the U.S. Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to the anonymous person whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1908 March, The Century Magazine, Volume 75, Number 5, “Sense and Sensibility” Part 2 by Helen Keller, Section: Before the Spiritual Awakening, Quote Page 778, The Century Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1910, The World I Live In by Helen Keller, Chapter 11: Before the Soul Dawn, Quote Page 113 and 114, The Century Company, New York. (Internet Archive Full View) link ↩︎
- 1955, Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy: A Tribute by the Foster-Child of Her Mind by Helen Keller, Introduction by Nella Braddy Henney, Quote Page 8, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1955 October 16, The New York Times, Section: The New York Times Book Review, Out of a Dark and Silent World by Anzia Yezierska (Book review of “Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy” by Helen Keller), Quote Page 3, Column 3, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎