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309

Helen Keller

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Helen Keller

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Auction Date:2010 May 12 @ 10:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
A lengthy and interesting collection of correspondence from Helen Keller and her companion Polly Thomson, as well as Tony and Academy Award winning playwright William Gibson, all to Keller’s longtime friend Nella Braddy Henney and her husband Keith. Archive includes:

A vintage matte-finish 8 x 10 photo of Keller and Polly Thomson, signed and inscribed in pencil, “To our dear Nella, whose beautiful friendship and unfailing helpfulness have enriched our lives. Affectionately, Helen Keller,” and signed in fountain pen by Thomson. Framed to an overall size of 8.5 x 11. Affixed to the reverse of the frame is a short handwritten pencil note from Keller, which reads: “This is a tiny thimble, Nella, but the love it symbolizes is shaken, pressed down and running over without measure. Affectionately, Helen Keller,” and also signed by Thomson. There is heavy contrast to Keller’s pencil signature and inscription.

A 1930 TLS, signed in pencil, “Helen Keller,” and in black ink, “Annie S. Macy,” which accompanied a gift of a Ford automobile to Nella. In full: “Please accept this little Ford as a token of our love and deep appreciation for all you have been and are to us. We hope you and Keith will enjoy it, and that you will come to see us in it often. That will be the best part of the fun.”

A December 1943 TLS, signed in pencil, presenting Nella with crystal glasses. In part: “These crystal cups suggest to me the delicate joys of understanding and sparkles of mind that have made it a blessing to know you all these years…They are doubly precious because they are part of a gift from Katharine Cornell which she ordered from Czechoslovakia before the War.”

A 1940 Christmas TLS, signed in pencil, thanking Nella for her years of friendship. In part: “Today I realize anew all that your friendship has meant to me. Every year since 1927 you have helped me in more dear ways than I can count — giving rest to Teacher’s eyes, easing my manual labor at the desk, counselling me with unwearied interest in my literary adventures, refreshing us with an ever to be remembered summer at Foss Mountain after our inexpressible toil and loneliness. There is no compassing all those kindnesses within the limits of any gift, but your swift imagination catches large meanings on small wings.”

A 1942 Christmas TLS, signed in pencil, “Helen,” presenting several Christmas gifts. In part: “Our Christmas Remembrance contains a rug for you, Nella, which Teacher loved because of its colorings…Also we are sending you some unusual tomato juice glasses…And the broom, which was made by the blind, is Herbert’s gift to you. ‘I wish you could sweep away all the war worries with it as well as the dust of the day’s doings,’ he says.”

A 1939 Christmas ANS, in pencil which reads: “The light within this globe will glow and fade, dear Nella, but our love shines on in a changing world.” Signed by Keller and also signed by Thomson.

A one page document from 1948, again signed in pencil by Keller, appointing Nella Braddy Henney power of attorney for literary matters.

A vintage glossy 5.5 x 3.5 of Le Choisel, signed on the reverse in pencil by Keller and in ink by Polly Thomson, Helen H. Pfeiffer, and three others, and dated in another hand April 13, 1950.

Other correspondence from Keller includes two early color Christmas cards, each signed in pencil by Keller, also adding short notes to each, and an unsigned TLS from Christmas of 1935, which accompanied a knitting bag, and a TLS from 1950 signed in pencil “Helen,” and also signed by Polly.

A carbon five page TLS, signed in type by Keller, dated October 14, 1948, written while on a train from Hiroshima to Fukuoka, recounting her visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Thomson. In part: “We are still aching all over from that piteous experience—it exceeds in horror and anguish the accounts I have read. Polly and I went to Hiroshima…to give our usual appeal meeting, but no sooner had we arrived there than the bitter irony of it all gripped us overpoweringly, and it cost us a supreme effort to speak…Instead of the fair, flourishing city we saw eleven years ago, there is only life struggling daily, hourly against a bare environment…Jolting over what had once been paved streets, we visited the one grave —all ashes— where about 8:30, August 6th, 1945, ninety thousand men, women and children were instantly killed…Polly tried to convey to me the sadness and horror in the eyes of the people we passed. Only the children smiled. Altogether, Nellie, Hiroshima’s fate is a Greek tragedy on a vast scale, not a modern one carrying with it the burden of deliberate wrong-doing or the far-seeing moral responsibility that inexorably summons our democracies to the Bar of Judgement…A few years ago, some of the Japanese people really believed that they were destined to conquer the world by war and to change the world for the better. Now Hiroshima has experienced the utter futility of warfare, as General MacArthur told me, and all Japan is reaching up to a loftier courage—that of peace.”

Also included are five ALSs from Keller’s companion, Polly Thomson to Nella from 1937, including two sent from Japan, and one from 1950. In the first letter, Thomson is critical of Keller’s writing style: “I fear as Teacher and I know so well in past years Helen has to have some one behind her just to make her sit-right-down & do the job. But, I may say freely, Helen just can’t do certain kinds of writing. Helen has little or no humor & she can’t say things in the clever modern way. Helen has just not that particular gift.”

Among the other items included are a five page document signed on behalf of Keller by Nella Braddy Henney, and also signed by William Gibson, the writer of script for The Miracle Worker television program, now working on the script for the dramatic play, with Keller receiving two percent of the gross profits; a limited edition privately printed copy of P. L. Travers’s “Aunt Sass,” signed and inscribed on the limitations page to Keller from Travers; a signed book of two of William Gibson’s plays, including The Miracle Worker, signed and inscribed by Gibson to Nella and her husband; a collection of correspondence between noted Eleanor Roosevelt biographer Joseph Lash and Nella’s husband Keith, dating from 1977-79, regarding his possible authoring of a book about Keller, Annie Sullivan, and Nella Braddy, most with carbons of Keith’s responses; and a collection of correspondence and copied documents between writer William Gibson and Nella regarding the upcoming production of The Miracle Worker, one letter which states: “Anne Bancroft will probably be busy in Seesaw for quite a while, and I believe she’ll give more to Annie Sullivan than any other young actress in the country.” A booklet entitled “With Helen Keller,” by Henney also accompanies the archive, and provides a brief account of when Henney received the automobile from Keller and Macy, mentioned in the aforementioned letter. Also included is an article written by Nella Henney about her association with Helen. Published after Nella's death, the article, "With Helen Keller" tells of their many years as friends, mentioning many of the events represented within this archive.

In very good to fine overall condition.

This archive offers sentimental and often poignant reflections by Keller, mostly toward her old friend, Nella Braddy. Keller’s proclamations of endearment toward Braddy, pledging that “our love shines on in a changing world,” indeed tug at the heartstrings, Meanwhile, honest assessments by Thomson, such as, “Helen has little or no humor & she can’t say things in the clever modern way. Helen has just not that particular gift,” are surely uncommon! Thomson, a native-born Scot with no experience dealing with the sight- or hearing-impaired, was originally hired to keep house for Keller after “Teacher”—Anne Sullivan—fell ill in 1914. Evidenced by this archive, Thomson progressed to working as Keller’s secretary, eventually becoming a constant trusted companion, particularly after Sullivan’s death in 1936. Thomson and Keller then traveled the world, raising funds for the blind. And through all that time, Braddy remained a friend, one Keller thanks for having “helped me in more dear ways than I can count.” An impossible-to-duplicate ensemble. RRAuction COA.
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