Helen Maria Fiske Hunt Jackson--the first child of Nathan Welby Fiske, a minister and professor of Latin and Greek at Amherst College, and Deborah Vinal Fiske of Boston--was born on 14 October 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Raised in a circle of educated, intelligent family members and friends steeped in the Calvinistic traditions of New England, she was a somewhat rebellious child whom her mother described as "wild--jumping rope, dressing up in odd things, and jumping out behind doors." Helen Fiske was unpredictable and inquisitive and often suffered punishment for disobedience, in contrast with Ann Scholfield Fiske, her younger sister, whom their mother described as a happier child, honest, artless, and affectionate. Both of her parents died by the time Fiske was seventeen years old. Having been educated at a series of boarding schools in Charlestown, Pittsfield, Falmouth, Hadley, and the Ipswich Female Academy, she was sent to New York City where she attended the school of John and Jacob Abbott, who had been family friends since the latter and Nathan Fiske had been students at Andover. Throughout her life she remained a close friend of the Abbotts, both of whom became popular writers.
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