Helen Hunt Jackson
Jackson, Helen Hunt (1831–1885), a United States writer. Ramona (1884) is a novel on the plight of the Indians in California. Its theme was suggested by her work in a government investigation of the treatment of Mission Indians. A Century of Dishonor (1881), nonfiction, has a similar theme. Some noteworthy lyric poetry appears in Verses by H.H. (1870) and Sonnets and Lyrics (1886). The central character of her novel Mercy Philbrick's Choice (1876) resembles Emily Dickinson, a lifelong friend.
Helen Hunt Jackson was born Helen Maria Fiske in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her first husband, Edward Bissel Hunt, died in 1863. She later settled in Colorado, where she married William Sharpless Jackson.