Search Results: Blind from Charles Agvent

New York: Pantheon Books, (1960). First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good, lacking the dustwrapper but in a very attractive Fine slipcase. Cloth, housed in a custom 1/4 brown morocco leather and cloth slipcase with a gilt-lettered spine, and a cloth chemise. Illustrated with photographs. A special copy INSCRIBED in an unknown hand to Helen Keller's nephew and two nieces--Brooks, Candice and Margo--and SIGNED in pencil on the front endpaper by Keller. The inscription dated 25 February 1961 reads: "Someday when you read this/remarkable story, I hope you will/find it as enjoyable and unique/a book as I have./With a warm kiss and hug for/each of you./Devotedly your aunt."

New York: Lewis Copeland Company, 1931. Second Revised Edition. Hardcover. Braille at the top of the front endpaper, possibly a previous owner's name. Light edgewear. Very Good, lacking the dustwrapper. An anthology of tributes to Keller by Robert Frost, Clarence Darrow, James Weldon Johnson, W. E. B. DuBois, Witter Bynner, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Rabindranath Tagore, and many others. SIGNED on the front endpaper in pencil, as always: "Cordially/Helen Keller."

Garden City: Doubleday Doran, 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Gutters browned, tasteful bookplate with name neatly inked out on front pastedown. Near Fine without dustwrapper, as issued, in a lightly soiled, Near Fine slipcase. Uncommon in this condition. One of an unspecified limitation SIGNED by the author in pencil, as usual, on a tipped-in leaf.

Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. Faint evidence of removal of bookplates on the front and rear pastedowns; dulling of the spine with neat removal of library numbers. Very Good, lacking the dustwrapper. Early Printing. Illustrated with photographs. Includes accounts of interactions with Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, and others. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author in pencil, as customary, on the front free endpaper "To Mr. Herbert White/with sincere regards/Helen Keller/Dec. 1929." Herbert White helped found the Connecticut Institute for the Blind in 1893 and served as treasurer for the American Foundation for the Blind. A nice association copy.

Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. Inscribee's tasteful bookplate on the front pastedown; slight darkening to the spine with light fraying to the tips. Very Good or better, lacking the dustwrapper. Early Printing. Illustrated with photographs. Includes accounts of interactions with Mark Twain, Charlie Chaplin, and others. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author in pencil, as customary, on the front free endpaper "To Mr. Samuel Mather/Lest he forget me/with every good wish/From Helen Keller/December." Samuel Mather was an American industrialist and philanthropist from Cleveland who co-founded Pickands Mather and Company, a shipping and iron mining company which dominated these two Great Lakes industries from 1900 to 1960. His grandfather, Samuel Mather, Jr. (1745-1809), was one of the original founders and shareholders in the Connecticut Land Company, which bought the Connecticut Western Reserve (which constituted what later became northern Ohio) in 1792. Other… Read More

[pre-1905]. Engraving. Old dampstaining and soiling to bottom blank margin with only a very slight effect on the signature. Easily Very Good or better. Early 3-3/4" x 5-3/4" engraving from a photograph on a 7" x 10" sheet tipped to a slightly larger sheet of Helen Keller's famous teacher, subject of the play and movie THE MIRACLE WORKER, SIGNED in ink below the image: "Anne Mansfield Sullivan." At the age of 7, nearly blind from an illness two years before and recently having suffered the loss of her mother, Sullivan was abandoned by her father in an orphanage with no formal educational facilities. Through her own will she managed to be placed in the Perkins Institute for the Blind from which she graduated as class valedictorian after regaining much of her eyesight from a series of operations. She began teaching Helen Keller when the deaf and blind child was seven and, by all accounts, quite undisciplined. Sullivan attended classes with Keller and tutored her through the Perkins Institute, The… Read More

Tulsa, OK, 17 March 1922. Letter. Creases from mailing, minor splitting along folds and light foxing and corner paper loss on the last page; two lines on the last page faint and written over in pencil, likely by Polly Thomson. Overall Very Good. Fine three-page letter on Hotel Tulsa stationery, 6" x 9-1/4", of @600 words to a Miss Hortop SIGNED in pencil by Keller. In part: “The lovely verse you sent brought a glow to my heart. But I did not need it to know that your dear thoughts have hovered about me on my journeyings. The darling flowers you have sent me from city to city have whispered how sweetly you were thinking of us all. How did you ever find time to gather, and wrap them up so snugly from the cold, that they might gladden me! And your messages too -- they have come like a response to my mood. At this moment I feel the sweet discontent awakened by the spring sunshine, and I long to escape from the endless restraints and complex life of the city. In this mood I read your verse about how… Read More

Wrentham [MA], 7 January [1904-1917]. Letter. Creases from mailing; light soiling. Very Good. A lovely one-page letter on a sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" paper addressed to a friend named Villa and SIGNED in pencil by Keller. In full: "Teacher [Anne Sullivan] is right in the midst of pies, and she wants me to thank you for her for your gift. Dear me, at the rate that she keeps making pies, I don't believe she will find time to set up as a druggist. I have forwarded the dainty handkerchief you sent for mother. I am sure it will please her. At Christmas-time we took Teacher off to the Green Mountains, so that she could get a respite from household cares. We spent some of our extra energy coasting and walking in snow up to our knees and sleighing and marvelling at the beauty of the hills. The change refreshed us all greatly. They told me that I came back every day with 'nice chipmunk cheeks.' If you at any time want a good rest and a comfortable place to be lazy in, just run up to WoodstockInn [sic]. While we… Read More

Lincoln, NE, 17 December 1921. Letter. Paper rather fragile and a little darkened but overall Very Good. A charming two-page letter on two sheets of The Lincoln hotel stationery (5-1/2" x 9-1/4") addressed to "Bebe" and SIGNED in pencil by Keller. In part: "The other day, when we were walking along the main street of Lincoln, Nebraska, on our way to the big red brick hotel, I nearly fell over this Dachshund, which was trotting out of an alley between two shops. Of course I begged the wee fellow's pardon, and he wagged his tail in such a friendly way, I knew it was all right." The owner, a young man, then appeared and said the dog was homeless. "Of course I thought of you, Bebe ... 'the dearest little girl in the world who will be good to Bevs' ... I think, though, Nebs is a good name, as he comes from Nebraska.... From all I could learn from the nice young man, Nebs is very well behaved.... But you know one can't believe every word one hears from strangers on the street. I thought I'd take a chance… Read More

New York: Leslie Fulenwider, (1929). First Edition. Hardcover. Fine in chemise and a Near Fine slipcase with minor wear. Duodecimo (4-1/4" x 6-3/4") in original blind-stamped black cloth; viii, 39 pages. Housed in a custom 1/4 green morocco leather and cloth slipcase with a gilt-decorated and lettered spine, and a cloth chemise. One of Keller's scarcest books, this copy even more so as it is INSCRIBED and SIGNED in pencil on the front endpaper by Keller to her brother Phillips Brooks Keller: "To Phillips/with affection/From/Sister Helen/February 5th 1940." Helen Keller was 11 when her brother Phillips was born in 1891. When she heard about his birth, Keller and "Teacher" (Anne Sullivan) were in Boston in school, and she sent back word to her family in Dallas that she wanted her brother named after her good, and as it turned out, lifelong friend, Bishop Phillips Brooks, the rector of Christs Church in Boston and the author of the Christmas song "O Little Town of Bethlehem."