1880年6月27日，我出生在阿拉巴馬州北方的小鎮：塔斯坎比亞。 

我們家的父系是卡斯帕‧凱勒的後裔，他是移民來到馬利蘭州的瑞士人。我的瑞士祖先中，有一個是蘇黎士省第一位教導聾人的教師，他還寫過一本有關聾人教育的書──對於我來說，這是有點奇特的巧合；雖然一個國王的祖先中可能會有人是奴隸，一個奴隸的祖先中可能會有人是國王，這種情況是當然的。 

我祖父是卡斯帕‧凱勒的兒子，他從馬利蘭州來到阿拉巴馬州開墾很大片的土地，最後就在這裡安頓下來。據說他會每年一次騎馬去費城為農場採購生活需品，我姑媽珍藏有許多他們家族的通信，關於我祖父那些生動有趣的年度遠行紀事，因此保存著。

我祖母凱勒，她的父親亞歷山大‧摩爾是開國元勳拉法葉將軍的侍從武官之一，她的祖父亞歷山大‧史巴茲伍是早先十三州殖民地時期的維吉尼亞州總督。她還是羅伯特‧愛德華‧李將軍的表姊妹。

我父親亞瑟‧凱勒，內戰時投入南軍從士兵做到軍需官。我母親凱特‧亞當斯比他年輕許多，是他的第二任妻子。她的祖父班傑明‧亞當斯參議員娶了蘇珊娜‧古德飛，他們在麻塞諸塞州的紐布瑞鎮住過好多年。他們的兒子查理‧亞當斯是在紐布瑞港出生的，但是他遷居去阿肯色州的海倫鎮。內戰的時候，查理‧亞當斯為南方而戰，幹到准將，他娶了露西‧艾佛雷；她和愛德華‧艾佛雷、愛德華‧艾佛雷‧赫爾醫生同是艾佛雷家族的人。戰後，他們移居去田納西州的孟非斯市。

一場病，剝奪了我的視覺和聽覺。這之前，我住在一間很小的房子；其中有一個方正的大房間和另一個佣人睡覺用的小房間。南方人習慣在莊園附近增建小屋，以為偶而需用。這樣的小房子是我父親在戰後蓋的，後來他娶我母親就以此為新房。這間小房子被藤蔓完全裹住，還攀緣有玫瑰和金銀花；從庭院望去它看起來像一組藤架，而門廊被黃色的玫瑰和大葉武竹織成的簾幕遮掩。這裡，鳥和蜜蜂特別喜愛，常在此啁啾或嗡嗡作響。

凱樂家族居住的凱樂農莊，離我們的玫瑰小屋只有幾步路；因為這房子、樹圍和柵籬都覆蓋著英格蘭常春藤，所以被稱為常春藤綠。那種舊式的花園是我童年時代的天堂。

I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.

The family on my father's side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education-rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

My grandfather, Caspar Keller's son, "entered" large tracts of land in Alabama and finally settled there. I have been told that once a year he went from Tuscumbia to Philadelphia on horseback to purchase supplies for the plantation, and my aunt has in her possession many of the letters to his family, which give charming and vivid accounts of these trips.

My Grandmother Keller was a daughter of one of Lafayette 's aides, Alexander Moore, and granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, an early Colonial Governor of Virginia. She was also second cousin to Robert E. Lee.

My father, Arthur H. Keller, was a captain in the Confederate Army, and my mother, Kate Adams, was his second wife and many years younger. Her grandfather, Benjamin Adams, married Susanna E. Goodhue, and lived in Newbury, Massachusetts, for many years. Their son, Charles Adams, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to Helena, Arkansas. When the Civil War broke out, he fought on the side of the South and became a brigadier-general. He married Lucy Helen Everett, who belonged to the same family of Everetts as Edward Everett and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. After the war was over the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house consisting of a large square room and a small one, in which the servant slept. It is a custom in the South to build a small house near the homestead as an annex to be used on occasion. Such a house my father built after the Civil War, and when he married my mother they went to live in it. It was completely covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckles. From the garden it looked like an arbour. The little porch was hidden from view by a screen of yellow roses and Southern smilax. It was the favourite haunt of humming-birds and bees.

The Keller homestead, where the family lived, was a few steps from our little rose-bower. It was called "Ivy Green" because the house and the surrounding trees and fences were covered with beautiful English ivy. Its old-fashioned garden was the paradise of my childhood.