INSCRIBED Helen Keller *Association Copy*, "Story of My Life." 1924
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📚 HELEN KELLER — "THE STORY OF MY LIFE"
Inscribed Presentation Copy · Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924
To Mrs. Marie M. Clisham, California School for the Blind
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You are looking at a personally inscribed copy of Helen Keller's autobiography — one of the most sought-after signatures in American literary and disability history — with a provenance connection documented in the Helen Keller Archive at the American Foundation for the Blind.
The inscription on the half-title page reads:
*"For*
*Mrs. Marie Chisham*
*With warmest wishes*
*for her good work in*
*dark silence*
*Helen Keller"*
"For her good work in dark silence" is not a stock inscription. It is Helen Keller reaching across the shared experience of a world without sight or sound to honor a specific person working in that same darkness — and we now know exactly who that person was.
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✍️ MARIE M. CLISHAM — THE RECIPIENT
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Marie M. Clisham was the Business Manager of the California School for the Blind — one of the oldest schools for blind children in America, established in 1860 and based in Berkeley, California. Correspondence regarding her retirement from that position on September 20, 1957 is preserved in the Helen Keller Archive at the American Foundation for the Blind, confirming that she was a documented figure in Keller's professional and philanthropic world.
The California School for the Blind was an institution deeply connected to the national network of schools and advocates for the blind and deafblind in which Keller spent her entire working life. When Keller inscribed this book to Clisham and praised her "good work in dark silence," she was honoring someone whose daily life was devoted to the same mission — the education and support of people living without sight.
One of the last pages of the book appears to carry what may be a signature by Clisham herself — a layer of provenance that connects the recipient's own hand to the volume that Keller gave her.
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📖 HELEN KELLER
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Helen Keller (1880-1968) lost her sight and hearing at nineteen months old following a serious illness. Taught by Anne Sullivan — the "Miracle Worker" — she became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating from Radcliffe College in 1904. She wrote twelve books, lectured across the world, championed women's suffrage and disability rights, and became one of the most celebrated Americans of the 20th century. The Story of My Life, first serialized in Ladies' Home Journal in 1902 and published by Doubleday in 1903, remains her most widely read work and one of the great American memoirs.
Keller wrote by hand — her large, characteristic square script guided entirely by touch. Inscribed copies of The Story of My Life in this Doubleday Page edition have been sold at Bonhams, AbeBooks, Bauman Rare Books, and Raptis Rare Books, with presentation copies regularly attracting significant collector and institutional interest. The additional provenance connection to documented Helen Keller Archive correspondence regarding Marie M. Clisham makes this copy particularly traceable and significant.
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📖 THE BOOK
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**Title:** The Story of My Life
**Author:** Helen Keller
**Publisher:** Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York
**Date:** 1924
**Binding:** Original crimson red cloth with gilt Art Nouveau decorative cartouche on front board; Doubleday Page "DP" gilt monogram; gilt lettering on spine; decorative crimson and cream Art Nouveau paste-down endpapers with publisher's monogram. The volume has been tastefully rebacked with the original spine relaid.
**Contents:** Keller's autobiography with her letters (1887–1901) and supplementary account of her education including passages from the letters of Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy
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📋 CONDITION
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Please review all photographs carefully before purchasing. The volume has been rebacked with the original spine relaid. The Keller inscription on the half-title page is clear and legible in ink. One of the last pages appears to carry what may be a signature by Mrs. Clisham herself. Don't hesitate to ask for additional photographs of any area of concern before purchasing.
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📌 DETAILS
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Title ·············· The Story of My Life
Author ············· Helen Keller
Publisher ·········· Doubleday, Page & Company
Date ··············· 1924
Binding ············ Original crimson cloth gilt, rebacked with spine relaid
Inscription ········ Helen Keller to Mrs. Marie M. Clisham — "for her good work in dark silence"
Provenance ········· Marie M. Clisham documented in Helen Keller Archive, American Foundation for the Blind
Possible signature · Mrs. Clisham's signature appears on one of the last pages
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📦 SHIPPING
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• Carefully packed in acid-free tissue with bubble wrap and rigid cardboard protection
• Fully tracked and insured for your peace of mind
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🔍 SEO TAGS
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INSCRIBED Helen Keller *Association Copy*, "Story of My Life." 1924
$2,400.00