Who Was Helen Hunt Jackson?

Helen Fiske was born October 18th, 1830 and died August 12th, 1885. Both of her parents - her father, an Amherst professor, minister, and author; and mother, a writer - passed away while she was a teenager enrolled in the prestigious Ipswich Female Seminary in Massachusetts. She went on to get married (changing her name to Helen Hunt) and have two kids, but unfortunately her husband and children passed away between the years 1854 and 65. Hunt found herself alone at the end of the Civil War, and moved to Rhode Island. There she restored and created friendships with her mentor figure Thomas Wentworth Higginson and other influential American female writer Emily Dickinson, an old neighbor from school, off of whom Hunt would later base a novel character. Seven years later, she moved to California. During a trip to Colorado Springs a few years later, she met her second husband and became Helen Hunt Jackson. They married in 1875.

In 1879, Jackson attended a life-changing lecture by Chief Standing Bear about the tragedy of the Ponca Indians. Upon learning that the national government had forced them out of their Nebraska homes, Jackson began working as an advocate and activist for Native Americans.

This is where her contributions to the West began.

Major Contributions to Native American History
Major Contributions to the West
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Early works of Helen Hunt Jackson are written under the pseudonyms "Saxe Holm" and "H.H." so her books would be taken more seriously (a common thing of older female writers.) For her books on Native Americans, however, Jackson used her real name.

"Unquestionably the best novel yet produced by an American woman" was what North American Review said of Jackson's most famous work, Ramona. It has been adapted to stage and screen and was one of many novels that placed her as one of the greatest female writers in American history.

Bob Dylan's famous song, To Ramona.

The title theme from the screen adaptation of Jackson's novel, Ramona.

A section of the movie Ramona.

Ralph Waldo Emerson described Jackson as "the greatest woman poet."

Jackson was good friends with fellow American female writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Many people referred to Jackson's book A Century of Dishonor as "the Uncle Tom's Cabin of California."
Jackson has written more than 30 books and hundreds of articles.