Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel, Ramona (1884), sold more than 15,000 copies before her death ten months after it was published, and has been reprinted more than three hundred times since then. One of the most popular and prolific women writers of her time, Jackson intended Ramona and A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (1881) to stir public outrage for the plight of American Indians who had been driven into poverty by government policy. Both books are still in print.

Helen Maria Fiske Hunt Jackson was born on 14 October 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, the first child of Nathan Welby Fiske, a minister and professor of Latin and Greek at Amhers

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First published 23 April 2004

Citation: Briscoe, Mary. "Helen Hunt Jackson". The Literary Encyclopedia. 23 April 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5706, accessed 9 February 2010.]