Midstream: My Later Life

Keller writes dismissively that she is not a writer, but there are some really beautiful passages here along with more ordinary, rambling and random reminiscence. It's always fascinating to me to read about her perspective on the world. Although many of her observations must perforce be filtered through the sight and hearing of another, aren't our own senses also filters that mediate the world to us? Keller is just one step removed in that process, and her powers of imagination and integration – which are the really important thing – are remarkable.

She interested me in learning more about Alexander Graham Bell, who sounds like another remarkable person. Inventing the telephone made him rich and famous but what he truly cared about was the education of the deaf. Other “friends” like Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and many more are uniquely seen through her eyes. Keller is unfailingly positive, but she says that this is a choice she has made; it's not that she is never sad or burdened by her limitations. She writes with humor about the stupidity and indifference towards the deaf-blind insofar as she is personally affected, with indignation and moral fervor about the plight of many others who are poorer and more confined than she.

She also touches on some painful personal episodes about which readers are probably curious to know more ... her brief secret engagement, the departure of John Macy. She is so tactful about these episodes, that much will have to remain unknown.