Wills, Helen Newington (Helen Wills Moody Roark), 1905-98, American tennis player, b. Centerville, Calif. She studied art at the Univ. of California and later gave exhibitions of her paintings and etchings, but gained international attention through tennis. She won seven U.S. singles crowns (1923-25, 1927-29, 1931), eight Wimbledon singles titles (1927-30, 1932-33, 1935, 1938), and four French singles championships (1928-30, 1932). She was a gold medalist in both singles and doubles at the 1924 Olympics, a member of eight Wightman Cup teams, and the 1935 Associated Press Athlete of the Year. Known for her methodical baseline play and emotional stoicism, she also helped emancipate women's tennis from the era of long skirts, petticoats, and stockings.

Whitman, Sarah Helen (Power), 1803-78, American poet, b. Providence, R.I. In 1828 she married a Boston lawyer, John W. Whitman; after his death (1833) she returned to Providence and devoted herself to writing. In 1848 she was engaged for a time to Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote the second of his two poems entitled "To Helen" about her. She wrote several poems about Poe and defended him in Edgar Poe and His Critics (1860). Her collected poems, Hours of Life, appeared in 1853 (enl. ed. 1879).

Vendler, Helen Hennessy, 1933-, American poetry critic, b. Boston; attended Emmanuel College, Harvard (Ph.D., 1960). One of America's most lucid critics of poetry, uniquely adept at close reading, she is also among the genre's great advocates. Her major works include monographs on W. B. Yeats (1963 and 2007), George Herbert (1975), Wallace Stevens (1969 and 1984), and Seamus Heaney (1998) as well as studies of Keats's Odes (1983) and Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997) and analyses of works by Pope, Whitman, Dickinson, and Yeats (2004) and Herbert, Whitman, and Ashbery (2005). Among her books on aspects of contemporary poetry are Part of Nature, Part of Us (1980), Soul Says (1995), The Given and the Made (1996), and Coming of Age as a Poet (2003). Vendler has also edited a number of anthologies, notably The Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry (1985). She has taught at Harvard since 1985.

Moody, Helen Wills: see Wills, Helen Newington.

MacInnes, Helen: see under Highet, Gilbert.

Keller, Helen Adams, 1880-1968, American author and lecturer, blind and deaf from an undiagnosed illness at the age of two, b. Tuscumbia, Ala. In 1887 she was put under the charge of Anne Sullivan (see Macy, Anne Sullivan), who was her teacher and companion until Sullivan's death in 1936. As a pupil Helen Keller made rapid progress and was graduated from Radcliffe in 1904 with honors. She lectured all over America and in Europe and Asia, raising funds for the training of the blind and promoting other social causes. Her books include The Story of My Life (1903), The World I Live In (1908), Helen Keller's Journal, 1936-1937 (1938), Let Us Have Faith (1940), and The Open Door (1957).

Jackson, Helen (Fiske) Hunt, 1830-85, American writer whose pseudonym was H. H., b. Amherst, Mass. She was a lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson. In 1863, encouraged by T. W. Higginson, Jackson began writing for periodicals. She is the author of poetry, novels, children's stories, and travel sketches. In 1881 she published A Century of Dishonor, an historical account of the government's injustice to Native Americans. This book led to her appointment (1882) as government investigator of the Mission of California. She subsequently wrote Ramona (1884), her famous romance, which presented even more emphatically the plight of Native Americans.

Holt, Helen Maud: see Tree, Sir Herbert Beerbohm.

Helen, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful of women; daughter of Leda and Zeus, and sister of Castor and Pollux and Clytemnestra. While still a young girl Helen was abducted to Attica by Theseus and Polydeuces, but Castor and Pollux rescued her. Later, when she was courted by the greatest heroes and chieftains of Greece, her foster father, Tyndareus, fearful of their jealousies, demanded that each suitor swear to defend the rights of the man Helen chose. She then married Menelaus, who, when Paris carried her off to Troy, reminded her former suitors of their oath. They then recruited an army and defeated the Trojans in the Trojan War.

Some legends say that Paris forcibly abducted Helen; others that she fell in love with him and went willingly. In one peculiar account, originating in Stesichorus and used by Euripides, Helen was rescued by Proteus in Egypt, who substituted in her stead a phantom that sailed to Troy with Paris. Proteus then cared for Helen until Menelaus finally claimed her. In the Iliad and Odyssey, Helen becomes Paris' wife but is in sympathy with the Greeks. She is easily reconciled with Menelaus after the war, and they return to a peaceful life at Sparta.

There are several other accounts of the story of Helen. Some say that after she and Menelaus returned to Greece, Orestes vengefully tried to kill her but that Zeus deified her. She bore Menelaus one daughter, Hermione, and, by some accounts, a son, Pleisthenes. Helen had cults in Sparta and elsewhere and is considered by some scholars to be a "faded" goddess—perhaps an ancient fertility goddess—who became a mortal woman.

Hayes, Helen, 1900-1993, American actress, b. Washington, D.C., as Helen Hayes Brown. She made her New York stage debut at the age of nine. Performances in Caesar and Cleopatra (1925), and Mary of Scotland (1933) brought her fame; her portrayal (1935-39) of the title role in Laurence Housman's Victoria Regina established her as an actress of the first rank. Later stage triumphs include The Show-Off (1967) and Harvey (1970). She was active also in films, winning Academy Awards for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932) and Airport (1969).

Frankenthaler, Helen, 1928-, American painter, b. New York City. A painter of the abstract expressionist school (see abstract expressionism), Frankenthaler was greatly influenced by Jackson Pollock, with whom she studied. In the early 1950s she developed a technique for staining unprimed canvases with color that was later to influence the color-field painters (see color-field painting). Her abstract works evoke a lyrical and sensuous mood, as in Blue Territory (1955) and Arden (1961; both: Whitney Mus., New York City).

Clark, Helen, 1950-, New Zealand politician, prime minister (1999-), b. Hamilton, N.Z. A graduate of the Univ. of Auckland (B.A., 1971; M.A., 1974), she taught political science there (1973-81). In 1981 she was elected to parliament as a member of the Labor party. Clark held various cabinet posts (1987-90) and served deputy prime minister (1989-90). Named party leader in 1993, she led the party to victory in 1999 and became prime minister of coalition government; Labor retained power in 2002 and 2005. In office, Clark has increased government spending, boosted the economy, nationalized lands claimed by Maoris, championed a national antinuclear policy, and refused to join the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

Brown, Helen Gurley, 1922-, American writer and editor, b. Green Forest, Ark. In 1962 she published the best-selling Sex and the Single Girl (1962); its sequel Sex and the New Single Girl appeared in 1970. From 1965 to 1997 she was editor of Cosmopolitan, reviving the faltering magazine by directing it toward single young career women. The magazine under her guidance charted the accomplishments and aspirations of these women in both their public and private lives.

or Helen Wills Moody in full Helen Newington Wills Moody Roark

(born Oct. 6, 1905, Centerville, Calif., U.S.—died Jan. 1, 1998, Carmel, Calif.) U.S. tennis player. She won the first of seven U.S. singles h1s in 1923. She took the gold medal in both singles and doubles at the 1924 Olympic Games. So overpowering was her game that from 1927 to 1932 she won every set she played in U.S. singles play. She took the Wimbledon h1 eight times (1927–30, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1938), a record only broken in 1990 by Martina Navratilova.

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(born July 28, 1866, South Kensington, Middlesex, Eng.—died Dec. 22, 1943, Sawrey, Lancashire) English author and illustrator of children's books. In her childhood Potter spent holidays in Scotland and the English Lake District, which inspired her love of animals and stimulated her imaginative and technically superb watercolour drawings. The illustrated animal stories she sent to a sick child when she was 27 were published as The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), which became one of the best-selling children's books of all time. More than 20 sequels followed, featuring such original characters as Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.

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(born June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia, Ala., U.S.—died June 1, 1968, Westport, Conn.) U.S. author and educator who was blind and deaf. Deprived by illness of sight and hearing at the age of 19 months, Keller soon became mute as well. Five years later she began to be instructed by Anne Sullivan (1866–1936), who taught her the names of objects by pressing the manual alphabet into her palm. Eventually Keller learned to read and write in Braille. She wrote several books, including The Story of My Life (1902). Her childhood was dramatized in William Gibson's play The Miracle Worker (1959; film, 1962).

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or Helen Wills Moody in full Helen Newington Wills Moody Roark

(born Oct. 6, 1905, Centerville, Calif., U.S.—died Jan. 1, 1998, Carmel, Calif.) U.S. tennis player. She won the first of seven U.S. singles h1s in 1923. She took the gold medal in both singles and doubles at the 1924 Olympic Games. So overpowering was her game that from 1927 to 1932 she won every set she played in U.S. singles play. She took the Wimbledon h1 eight times (1927–30, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1938), a record only broken in 1990 by Martina Navratilova.

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(born Oct. 10, 1900, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died March 17, 1993, Nyack, N.Y.) U.S. actress. She began her stage career at age five and made her Broadway debut at nine. She went on to an illustrious career, starring in Broadway productions such as Caesar and Cleopatra (1925), What Every Woman Knows (1926), and The Animal Kingdom (1932) and became known as “the First Lady of the American Theatre.” Her small physical size belied a majestic stage presence that made her memorable in Mary of Scotland (1933–34) and Victoria Regina (1935–39). She starred in revivals of The Skin of Our Teeth (1955), The Glass Menagerie (1956), and Long Day's Journey into Night (1971), acted in numerous radio and television plays, and won Academy Awards for her films The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and Airport (1970), three Tony Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was married to Charles MacArthur.

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(born Dec. 12, 1928, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. painter. She studied with Rufino Tamayo in high school and at Bennington College, then returned to her native New York City and joined the “second generation” of Abstract Expressionists. Influenced by Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky, she developed a style featuring abstract colour combinations within large expanses of bare canvas. She perfected the technique of colour staining, producing diaphanous colour by thinning the oils and letting them soak into the unprimed canvas. In the 1960s she began to use acrylic paints. Though abstract, many of her paintings (e.g., Ocean Desert, 1975) evoke landscapes and are noted for their lyricism. Her work influenced the colour-field painters Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. She was married to Robert Motherwell from 1958 to 1971.

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(born Feb. 26, 1950, Hamilton, N.Z.) New Zealand prime minister (1999–2008). She was the first woman in New Zealand to hold the office of prime minister immediately following an election. She received bachelor's (1971) and master's (1974) degrees in political science at the University of Auckland, where she taught from 1973 to 1981. Elected to Parliament in 1981, she held various cabinet portfolios beginning in 1987. She served as deputy prime minister in 1989–90 and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1990, both firsts for a woman in New Zealand. In 1993 she was elected head of the Labour Party, becoming the first woman in New Zealand to head a major party. In 1999, when the Labour Party was able to form a governing coalition, Clark was elected prime minister. She was reelected in both 2002 and 2005, becoming the first New Zealand prime minister to secure three consecutive terms in office. In the 2008 election, however, her party was defeated by the National Party; she subsequently stepped down as Labour leader.

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(born June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia, Ala., U.S.—died June 1, 1968, Westport, Conn.) U.S. author and educator who was blind and deaf. Deprived by illness of sight and hearing at the age of 19 months, Keller soon became mute as well. Five years later she began to be instructed by Anne Sullivan (1866–1936), who taught her the names of objects by pressing the manual alphabet into her palm. Eventually Keller learned to read and write in Braille. She wrote several books, including The Story of My Life (1902). Her childhood was dramatized in William Gibson's play The Miracle Worker (1959; film, 1962).

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In Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in Greece, who was the indirect cause of the Trojan War. She was a daughter of Zeus, either by Leda or by Nemesis. Her brothers were the Dioscuri, and her sister was Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon. Helen was the wife of Menelaus. When Paris, son of Priam, was asked to decide which goddess was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite, who rewarded him with the most beautiful woman in the world. Seducing Helen with the goddess's help, Paris carried her off to Troy, and the Greeks sent a military force to pursue them. At the war's end, with Paris dead, Helen returned to Sparta with Menelaus.

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(born Dec. 12, 1928, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. painter. She studied with Rufino Tamayo in high school and at Bennington College, then returned to her native New York City and joined the “second generation” of Abstract Expressionists. Influenced by Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky, she developed a style featuring abstract colour combinations within large expanses of bare canvas. She perfected the technique of colour staining, producing diaphanous colour by thinning the oils and letting them soak into the unprimed canvas. In the 1960s she began to use acrylic paints. Though abstract, many of her paintings (e.g., Ocean Desert, 1975) evoke landscapes and are noted for their lyricism. Her work influenced the colour-field painters Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. She was married to Robert Motherwell from 1958 to 1971.

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(born Feb. 26, 1950, Hamilton, N.Z.) New Zealand prime minister (1999–2008). She was the first woman in New Zealand to hold the office of prime minister immediately following an election. She received bachelor's (1971) and master's (1974) degrees in political science at the University of Auckland, where she taught from 1973 to 1981. Elected to Parliament in 1981, she held various cabinet portfolios beginning in 1987. She served as deputy prime minister in 1989–90 and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1990, both firsts for a woman in New Zealand. In 1993 she was elected head of the Labour Party, becoming the first woman in New Zealand to head a major party. In 1999, when the Labour Party was able to form a governing coalition, Clark was elected prime minister. She was reelected in both 2002 and 2005, becoming the first New Zealand prime minister to secure three consecutive terms in office. In the 2008 election, however, her party was defeated by the National Party; she subsequently stepped down as Labour leader.

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