One of the darkest periods of Helen’s young life was not a moment of isolation or discouragement caused by one of her disabilities, but rather an instance in which her own ambition backfired. She composed a story for Mr. Anagnos, the director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, but it soon became apparent, after the story’s publication, that Helen had lifted the idea for the piece—and indeed much of the language within it—from a story which had been read to her in her childhood. Helen had done so unwittingly, without realizing that she was plagiarizing, but the disgrace this…