The Frost King

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The Frost King was a short story written by Helen Keller at the age of twelve, in 1892. Keller's story has similarities to an older story, Margaret Canby's "Frost Fairies", with which Keller may have been familiar. As a result, there was an implication of possible plagiarism on the part of Keller or that of her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

Contents

[edit] The story

Anne Sullivan often described detailed visual and auditory impressions to Keller. When Sullivan mentioned that the autumn leaves were "painted ruby, emerald, gold, crimson, and brown", Keller, then twelve, imagined fairies doing the work, and was inspired to write a story about how Jack Frost came up with the idea when a cask of jewels his fairy servants were transporting melted in the sun and covered the leaves [1]. She sent the story to Michael Anagnos, head of the Perkins School for the Blind, as a birthday gift. He had it published in the Perkins annual report, accompanied by his own lushly written endorsement of Keller's talents, and it was picked up by two other journals on deaf-blind education.

A reader wrote in that Keller's story was a reproduction/adaptation of Margaret Canby's story "Frost Fairies", from her book Birdie and His Fairy Friends. Keller insisted she had no memory of having read the book or having had it read to her, but passages in her letters from the period, which she describes as "dreams", are strongly reminiscent of other episodes in the book [2]. It was determined that in 1888, while Sullivan was on vacation, her mentor Sophia Hopkins had charge of the then eight-year-old Keller, and had read the book to her through finger spelling. Keller stated that she remembered nothing of this and was devastated that people she had loved and trusted would accuse her of lying.

A storm of outrage swept through the school, apparently spearheaded by teachers who resented that Sullivan and Keller had been granted use of the facilities although not employed by nor officially registered with the school. Their attitudes may also have been influenced by Sullivan's low social status (many of the faculty and staff were Boston Brahmins), and by the fact that she and Keller were international media icons[citation needed]. Keller was often portrayed in the press and by famous authors who had met her, as well as by Anagnos himself, as an angel, pure, innocent and without faults. This attitude might well have annoyed members of the faculty, in a reaction similar to that reported by people today who encounter a Mary Sue-type of character in literature[original research?].

An in-house "trial" ensued to determine whether or not Sullivan had deliberately falsified Keller's abilities; eight teachers interrogated the twelve-year-old child for two hours and fought the issue to a draw, the tie-breaking vote being cast by Anagnos in Keller's favor. Although Sullivan protested that "all use of language is imitative, and one's style is made up of all other styles that one has met," and even Margaret Canby came forward to say that Keller's version was superior to her own[1], Anagnos never regained his faith in Sullivan or Keller and described them years later as "a living lie". Keller had a nervous breakdown over the incident, and never wrote fiction again.

[edit] Controversy

In his book Helen and Teacher, Joseph P. Lash reports researching into the Perkins archives and finding an anonymous document called "Miss Sullivan's Methods". It consists of an analysis of letters written by Sullivan and Keller around the time of the Frost King incident. Many of these letters contain paraphrases of Canby's writing, as well as verbatim passages. Keller and Sullivan cited some of these in their own explanation of what happened, and Sullivan stated several times that Keller's writings at that time often contained extensive paraphrases of what she'd read or had read to her.

Lash believes that the author of the document was trying to prove that Sullivan, not Mrs. Hopkins, had read Birdie and his fairy friends to Keller, and had done so that same autumn, not four years previously. He concludes that if this was the case:

  • Keller wrote The Frost King as another one of her paraphrased stories, similar to what she'd been writing in her letters of the period.
  • Sullivan, who always checked Keller's writings before allowing them to be mailed, would have recognized The Frost King as a paraphrase, but considering it to be sufficiently original, passed it on as Keller's own work.
  • Sullivan may not have understood what plagiarism is.
  • When Keller was accused, Sullivan attempted a coverup, denying she had read the Birdie stories and impressing upon Keller the importance of stating that Mrs. Hopkins had read her the stories years before.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "What a wonderfully active and retentive mind that gifted child must have! If she had remembered and written down accurately, a short story, and that soon after hearing it, it would have been a marvel; but to have heard the story once, three years ago, and in such a way that neither her parents nor teacher could ever allude to it or refresh her memory about it, and then to have been able to reproduce it so vividly, even adding some touches of her own in perfect keeping with the rest, which really improve the original, is something that very few girls of riper age, and with every advantage of sight, hearing, and even great talents for composition, could have done as well, if at all." Margaret Canby, quoted by John A. Macy, in Literary Style, supplemental chapter to Keller's Story of My Life, entire text online and found 2008-03-07

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  • The Frost King Entire story with explanations and background information by John A. Macy, Anne Sullivan, and Helen Keller.
  • What Helen Saw New Yorker article discussing Helen's life and accusations of plagiarism and coaching throughout her life.
  • Written in Memory 2003 Nation article discussing Helen's acquisition of language and the significance of the Frost King incident, on the publication of a new edition of The Story of My Life. (PDF file)
  • Mark Twain's Letter The famous statement that nearly all human expression is a form of plagiarism, written to Keller in 1903 after the publication of The Story Of My Life. Keller faced similar charges after the publication of this book. Some critics alleged that John Macy had written the book and passed it off as Keller's work.