TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editor's Preface
Part I. The Story of My Life Chapter I-XXIII
II. Introduction to Letters, Letters
III. A Supplementary Account of Helen Keller's Life and

Education
Chapter I. The Writing of the Book
II. Personality
III. Education
IV. Speech
V. Literary Style


Part I. The Story of My Life

Chapter I

It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my
life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting
the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The
task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try
to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy
look alike across the years that link the past with the present.
The woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy. A
few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my
life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest."