Light In My Darkness

Light In My Darkness
by Helen Keller, Ed. By Ray Silverman

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About Book

Midwest Book Review
Originally published as My Religion in 1927, this Helen Keller classic has been revised and edited, in keeping with Keller's original wishes, by Ray Silverman, providing a strong blend of her original title and her autobiography, essays, letters and lectures in an integrated volume considering her religious values and reflections. Enjoy a well-done editing job which provides a smooth assembly of Keller's thoughts.

Book Description
Helen Keller, Time Magazine’s woman of the century, reveals her mystical side in this best-selling spiritual autobiography. Writing that her first reading of Emanuel Swedenborg at age fourteen gave her truths that were “to my faculties what light, color and music are to the eye and ear,” she explains how Swedenborg’s works sustained her throughout her life.

This new edition includes a foreword by Dorothy Herrmann, author of the acclaimed Helen Keller: A Life, and a new chapter, “Epilogue: My Luminous Universe.”

From the Back Cover
Helen Keller traces her spiritual development, revealing her mystical, ecstatic aspect, in this revised and expanded edition of her spiritual autobiography. "Emanuel Swedenborg's message has been my strongest incitement to overcome limitations," she proclaims.

Swedenborgiansim, with its concepts of a universal spiritual reality and brotherhood, a loving god, and an afterlife in which no one would suffer from limitations and handicaps, appealed to Helen. She drew much inspiration and insight from the Swedish seer's writings and his enthralling presentation of morality, calling them "the light in my darkness, the voice in my silence." (From the Foreword by Dorothy Herrmann, author of Helen Keller: A Life)

Keller herself was without conceit; her own words make her a more appealing figure than the woman glimpsed in old newsreels. Her view of her life is motivated by joy and gratitude. (The Bloomsbury Review)

Exploring these writings gives us a more intimate view of Keller's joyous celebration of life and transformative spiritual vision." (NAPRA Review)

[This book]. . . presents an inspiring picture of this remarkable woman's affirmation of the power and triumph of the spirit (New Age Retailer).

About the Author
Helen Keller refused to be held back by her physical limitations. Although scarlet fever left her deaf and blind when she was less than two years old, she learned to read in several languages and was able to speak. She graduated with honors from Radcliffe in 1904, where she wrote The Story of My Life. These accomplishments took place at a time when few women attended college and the disabled were often dismissed from normal society. Nevertheless, she wrote thirteen books and numerous articles, devoted time and energy to social reform, and lectured on behalf of the disabled. She also helped initiate foundations that improve the lives of the deaf and blind around the world.

Excerpted from Light in My Darkness by Helen Keller, Ray Silverman, Dorothy Herrmann, silverma. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
From the Foreword by Dorothy Herrmann: . . . Helen Keller . . . loved to laugh and to have people spell jokes into her hand; she loved stylish clothes, especially red high heels; and she also enjoyed a cocktail or two in the evening. Physically, she was a tall, beautiful woman, with regular, almost perfect features. In her youth, she had a luxuriant mane of chestnut hair that cascaded down her back. She had a lovely figure, but because of her deaf-blindness, her physical attributes, which were considerable, were usually not mentioned.

In June 1935, a week before her seventy-fifth birthday, Helen received an honorary degree from Harvard University, the first woman to be so honored. When her name was called, the entire audience rose for a standing ovation. She had never looked more beautiful-she was dressed entirely in white, with a white hat with small green flowers. Pinned to her dress was a corsage of white gardenias that the Swedenborgians had sent her. It was a measure of her respect and devotion to the New Church that she chose to wear these lovely flowers on this very special day of her life.

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