KELLER, Helen Adams (1880-1968). Autograph letter signed ("Helen A. Keller") to unidentified "dear little boys." N.p., July 1888.

One page, 8vo, in pencil, with an embossed seal, a few short marginal tears neatly repaired verso.

AN EARLY HELEN KELLER LETTER. Writing “dear little boys,” 8-year-old Keller mentions her recent trip to Plymouth to see the cradle of Peregrine White, the first child born to Pilgrims in the New World, at Pilgrim Hall, and requests a letter and another visit from the recipients. Keller also discusses her upcoming trip to Brewster to stay with Sophia Crocker Hopkins (1843-1917), who was a mentor to Anne Sullivan while she was the housemother at the Perkins School for the Blind in South Boston, where Keller studied between 1888 and 1892. In The Story of My Life, Keller recounts her time at Brewster: “Just before the Perkins Institution closed for the summer, it was arranged that my teacher and I should spend our vacation at Brewster, on Cape Cod, with our dear friend, Mrs. Hopkins. I was delighted, for my mind was full of the prospective joys and of the wonderful stories I had heard about the sea” (p.41).
From Hadley, formerly known as Hadley School for the Blind