Helen Hunt Jackson

Description

Helen Maria Hunt Jackson (October 18, 1830 - August 12, 1885) was an American writer best known as the author of Ramona, a novel about the ill treatment of Native Americans in southern California.<p>She was born Helen Maria Fiske in Amherst, Massachusetts, a daughter of Nathan Welby Fiske and Deborah Waterman Vinal. She had two brothers, both of whom died after birth, and a sister named Anne. Her father was a minister, author, and professor of Latin, Greek, and philosophy at Amherst College.<p>Her mother died in 1844, and her father died three years later in 1847, leaving her to the care of an aunt. Before her father's death, however, he saw to it that she had a good education. She attended Ipswich Female Seminary and the Abbott Institute, a boarding school run by Reverend J.S.C. Abbott in New York City. She was a classmate of the poet Emily Dickinson, also from Amherst. The two carried on a correspondence for all of their lives, but few of their letters have survived.<p>In 1852, Helen Fiske...