About this item

After many years, historian and Helen Keller expert Kim Nielsen realized that she, along with other historians and biographers, had failed Anne Sullivan Macy. While Macy is remembered primarily as Helen Kellers teacher and mythologized as a straightforward educational superhero, the real story of this brilliant, complex, and misunderstood woman, who described herself as a badly constructed human being, has never been completely told. Beyond the Miracle Worker, the first biography of Macy in nearly fifty years, complicates the typical Helen-Annie feel good narrative in surprising ways. By telling the life from Macys perspective-not Kellers-the biography is the first to put Macy squarely at the center of the story. It presents a new and fascinating tale about a wounded but determined woman and her quest for a successful, meaningful life.



About the Author

Kim E. Nielsen

Ever since I was a kid exploring my community's old Carnegie library, I had loved biography! Now I'm professor of history and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Studying history means I get to read biography and consider it work. My most recent book is Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller (Beacon Press, 2009). Author appearances: - October 2009, Wisconsin Literary Festival - May 28, 7 pm, Readers Loft Bookstore, Green Bay, Wisconsin - June 6, 12:30 pm, Printers Row Literary Festival, University Center Loop Room, 525 S. State St., 3rd floor, Chicago, Illinois



Read Next Recommendation

Report incorrect product information.