Helen Hunt Jackson (1831-1885) was an American writer. Her maiden name was Helen Fiske. She was born at Amherst, and died at San Francisco. In 1853 she married Captain Edward Hunt, with whom she traveled extensively in the West, gathering the material afterward used in her stories and poems. In 1863 Captain Hunt died. Her second husband, W. S. Jackson, was a banker. She adopted "H. H." as a pen name. She interested herself in the cause of the Indians.
A Century of Dishonor, appearing in 1881, was a sharp rap on the United States government for not taking better care of the natives. In 1884 her best story,
Ramona, appeared. The scene is laid in California, It has been called "The Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the Indians. It was intended by the writer to attract public attention to the injustice suffered by the Indians. It won fame for the writer and still ranks as one of the greater American tales. She wrote several other novels and made many contributions to periodicals; but
Ramona and a number of lovely lyrics are her title to fame. Some of the latter, as
September and
October, are sure to be found in every volume of children's verse.
