Letter from Helen Keller in Forest Hills, NY to President Franklin D. Roosevelt thanking him for funding Talking Books, November 2, 1935. Helen Keller Archives, American Foundation for the Blind.
Helen Keller's powers of persuasion were notable, and she knew that her opposition to any campaign could seriously stymie any project. Keller was clear about her reasons for opposing the Talking Book program. Less clear is why she changed her mind. On March 31, 1935, she wrote a letter to AFB's President M. C. Migel withdrawing her opposition to Talking Books and pledging her future support.
Helen wrote and solicited the support of well-known personalities of her day to ensure success of the project, including figures such as Alexander Woollcott, the well-known commentator and radio personality; Louise Carnegie, the wife of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie; and Mrs. Felix Fuld, sister of businessman and philanthropist Louis Bamberger. (These letters are located in the American Foundation for the Blind Helen Keller Archives).
It was Helen Keller's ability to charm influential people in Congress, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt in particular, that clinched the funding necessary to make the Talking Book program a reality. On September 19, 1935, President Roosevelt signed an executive order allocating $211,500 to the Library of Congress for the manufacture of Talking Book machines as a Works Progress Administration project. The Library hired AFB to run the project. On November 2, 1935, Keller wrote the letter displayed on this page to the President, thanking him for that funding.
Full Text of Letter
[Transcriber's Note: The following is printed on the top center of the stationery:]
7111 SEMINOLE AVENUE
FOREST HILLS, NEW YORK]
November 2, 1935
Dear President Roosevelt,
It is wonderful! With a stroke of the pen you have released the blessing of the talking-book --- the most constructive aid to the blind since the invention of Braille which opened to them the doors of education.
How shall I ever thank you for again and again helping the sightless to refashion their world so that they may live in it more securely and pleasantly? I can only say that as the days come round with the struggle to overcome limitations I shall count over your gracious deeds like a golden rosary and think of you as a friend whose good-will is a fruitful tree with branches hanging over the wall.
I am glad you have had a respite from the [Transcriber's Note: the typed word 'Atlean' is crossed out in pencil and the word 'prodigious' is written above it.] responsibilities which you carry on your shoulders so gallantly, and I trust that you will reap a still richer harvest of good in your [Transcriber's Note: the penciled word 'continued' is inserted into the sentence above the typed line; a penciled upward-facing caret below.] efforts to reshape American life by a nobler ideal.
Cordially yours,
