Synopses & Reviews
After many years, historian and Helen Keller expert Kim Nielsen realized that she, along with other historians and biographers, had failed Anne Sullivan Macy. While Macy is remembered primarily as Helen Keller's teacher and mythologized as a straightforward educational superhero, the real story of this brilliant, complex, and misunderstood woman, who described herself as a "badly constructed human being," has never been completely told.
Beyond the Miracle Worker, the first biography of Macy in nearly fifty years, complicates the typical Helen-Annie "feel good" narrative in surprising ways. By telling the life from Macy's perspective-not Keller's-the biography is the first to put Macy squarely at the center of the story. It presents a new and fascinating tale about a wounded but determined woman and her quest for a successful, meaningful life.
Born in 1866 to poverty-stricken Irish immigrants, the parentless and deserted Macy suffered part of her childhood in the Massachusetts State Almshouse at Tewksbury. Seeking escape, in love with literature, and profoundly stubborn, she successfully fought to gain an education at the Perkins School for the Blind.
As an adult, Macy taught Keller, helping the girl realize her immense potential, and Macy's intimate friendship with Keller remained powerful throughout their lives. Yet as Macy floundered with her own blindness, ill health, and depression, as well as a tumultuous and triangulated marriage, she came to lean on her former student, emotionally, physically, and economically.
Based on privately held primary source material, including materials at both the American Foundation for the Blind and the Perkins School for the Blind, Beyond the Miracle Worker is revelatory and absorbing, unraveling one of the best known-and least understood-friendships of the twentieth century.
Synopsis
A moving portrait of Ann Sullivan Macy, teacher of Helen Keller--and a complex, intelligent woman worthy of her own spotlight After many years, historian and Helen Keller expert Kim Nielsen realized that she and her peers had failed Anne Sullivan Macy. While Macy is remembered primarily as Helen Keller's teacher and a straightforward educational superhero, the real story of this brilliant, complex, and misunderstood woman has never been completely told. Beyond the Miracle Worker seeks to correct this oversight, presenting a new tale about the wounded but determined woman and her quest for a successful, meaningful life.
Born in 1866 to poverty-stricken Irish immigrants, Macy suffered part of her childhood in the Massachusetts State Almshouse at Tewksbury. Seeking escape, in love with literature, and profoundly stubborn, she successfully fought to gain an education at the Perkins School for the Blind. She went on to teach Helen Keller, who became a loyal and lifelong friend. As Macy floundered with her own blindness, ill health, depression, and marital strife in her later years, she came to lean on her former student for emotional, physical, and economic support.
Based on privately held primary source material--including materials at both the American Foundation for the Blind and the Perkins School for the Blind--Beyond the Miracle Worker is revelatory and absorbing, unraveling one of the best known and least understood friendships of the twentieth century.
Synopsis
Biographers had shortchanged Anne Sullivan Macy, a woman remembered primarily as a miracle worker. Kim E. Nielsens biography, the first to focus on Macy in nearly fifty years, tells Macys life as
her storynot Kellerspresenting a new, gripping tale about a wounded yet determined woman and her quest for a successful and meaningful life.
About the Author
Kim E. Nielsen is an award-winning educator, the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities We the People stipend, a Fulbright lecturer, the author of many journal articles, and frequent public speaker. Her books include Helen Keller: Selected Writings (2005), The Radical Lives of Helen Keller(2004) and Un-American Womanhood: Antiradicalism, Antifeminism and the First Red Scare (2001). She also served as an advisory editor to the forthcomingEncyclopedia of American Disability History (2009). She lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin where she is Professor of History & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Feeding Hills
Chapter 2
Tewksbury Almshouse
Chapter 3
Perkins, 1880-1885: Part One
Chapter 4
Perkins, 1880-1886: Part Two
Chapter 5
Becoming a Teacher
Chapter 6
Tuscumbia, 1888-1891
Chapter 7
The Battle for Helen, Round 1, 1891-1984
Chapter 8
The Battle for Helen, Round 2, 1894-1900
Chapter 9
Radcliffe, 1900-1904
Chapter 10
John, 1904-1914
Chapter 11
On the Road, 1914-1924
Chapter 12
The American Foundation for the Blind, 1924-1930
Chapter 13
Concluding, 1930-1936
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index