Captain Keller's Business Letter

(Page numbers are based on Glencoe Literature, Reader's Choice, Course 4, 2002.)

Background: On pages 712-716 in your textbook, Kate and Captain Keller discuss writing to Dr. Chisholm in Baltimore to get some help for Helen. On page 716, Mr. Anagnos states that Dr. Chisholm couldn't help Helen, but that Dr. Bell had suggested that Helen needed a teacher. That is how Annie got the job with the Kellers. ("Dr. Bell" is Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone while looking for a way to help deaf and hearing-impaired people.)

Your task: Write the business letter Captain Keller would have sent to Mr. Anagnos at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, asking him to help find a teacher for Helen. Describe Helen, explain what duties would be required, and offer a salary. (Can you find Annie's salary mentioned on page 718?)

  1. Use standard business letter format found on p. R-70 at the back of your literature book.
  2. Use standard spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar.
  3. Use a formal tone.
  4. Include all necessary information.
  5. Make sure that what you say is accurate and plausible within the context of the play. (The Kellers lived before rural street addresses. For an address, use "Ivy Green, Tuscumbia, Alabama." The date would be in the spring of 1886.)
  6. Check your final version for neatness. This includes using blue or black ink on unlined white paper or typing or word processing the final draft.
Your business letter must be handed in by ____________________.


Teachers, if you would like a printable copy, click here. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to read this file. Permission is granted for teachers to use this assignment in an educational setting. Any commercial use without permission is prohibited.

Carla Beard
Connersville High School