Helen Hunt Jackson Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Helen Hunt Jackson

One of the most prolific women writers of her time, Helen Hunt Jackson hoped to be remembered mainly for A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (1881) and Ramona: A Story (1884). Before Jackson's death more than fifteen thousand copies were sold of Ramona, the novel with which she intended to arouse public outrage at the plight of Native Americans in the California missions, just as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) had called attention to the plight of African Americans. While the success of the novel in fulfilling that objective is still debated, the story and its leading characters have continued to attract audiences for more than one hundred years. Since its first publication Ramona has been reprinted more than three hundred times; the story has been represented in many pageants and plays for stage, motion pictures, and television; and its main characters and settings have been blended into the legendary past of southern California.

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