Question

Explain the frost king episode in about 100 words .

Answer 1

Helen had written a story called, "The Frost King" and words and images had come tripping from her finger ends. Everyone liked the story, so Helen sent the story to Mr. Anagnos, on his birthday. Mr. Anagnos was extremely delighted and the story was published in Perkins Institution reports. In a short time, it was discovered that a similar story called "Birdie and His Friends" written by Miss Canby had been published before. Both the stories were so much alike in thought and language so Helen was accused of plagiarism, which Helen couldn't understand. Mr. Anagnos was deelpy hurt and he believed that both Anne Sullivan and Helen had conspired to steal the story to impress him. Helen had to face the charges before a court of investigation, which shattered her emotionally. Mr. Anagnos stated later that he had sided with the people who had been in Helen's favour. Later he retracted his statement. Helen deeply regretted losing his friendship. She remembered how Mr. Anagnos had held Helen on his knee and shared in her frolics. Nevertheless Helen moved on and went on to become a great writer and social activist.

Answer 2

"The Frost King" was a short story about King Jack Frost written by 11-year-old Helen Keller.[2] Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, had mentioned that the autumn leaves were "painted ruby, emerald, gold, crimson, and brown," and Keller, by her own account, imagined fairies doing the work. Keller wrote a story about how a cask of jewels, being transported by fairy servants, had melted in the sun and covered the leaves.[3] As a birthday gift, Keller sent the story to Michael Anagnos, head of the Perkins School for the Blind, who published the story in The Mentor, the Perkins alumni magazine. It was picked up by The Goodson Gazette, a journal on deaf-blind education, based in Virginia.

A friend, one of the Perkins teachers informed the Gazette that Keller's story was a reproduction of "Frost Fairies",[4] from Margaret Canby's book Birdie and His Fairy Friends.

The Gazette ran both stories, and the editor commented that he believed it a deliberate attempt at fraud by Keller's handlers. 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", strongly resembled other episodes in the book.[3]

In Sullivan's account of the incident, addressed to John Hitz of the Volta Bureau, she had investigated to see who could have read the story to Helen or even owned a copy of the book. It seemed her own mentor, Sophia Hopkins, had taken charge of the then eight-year-old Keller while Sullivan was on vacation, and had read the book to her through finger spelling. Keller stated that she remembered nothing of this, and she was devastated that people she had loved and trusted would accuse her of lying.

Lash believes the author of the document was trying to prove Sullivan, not 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 Hopkins had read her the stories years before.