Helen Hunt Jackson
Encyclopedia
Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, born Helen Fiske (October 18, 1830 – August 12, 1885), was a United States
writer
who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans
by the U.S. government. She detailed the adverse effects of government actions in her history A Century of Dishonor
(1881). Her novel Ramona
dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California
and attracted considerable attention to her cause, although its popularity was based on its romantic and picturesque qualities rather than its political content. It was estimated to have been reprinted 300 times, and contributed to the growth of tourism
in Southern California
.
The novel was adapted repeatedly for movies: in 1910 it was produced as a silent film Ramona
, directed by D. W. Griffith
and starring Mary Pickford
. Other versions were made in 1928 and 1936.
, the daughter of Nathan Welby Fiske and Deborah Waterman Vinal. She had two brothers, both of whom died after birth, and a sister Anne. Her father was a minister, author, and professor of Latin, Greek, and philosophy at Amherst College
.
Her mother died in 1844 when Helen was fourteen, and her father three years later. Her father provided for her education and arranged for an aunt to care for her. Fiske 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 corresponded for the rest of their lives, but few of their letters have survived.
in 1865.
About 1873-1874, Hunt met William Sharpless Jackson, a wealthy banker and railroad executive, while visiting at Colorado Springs, Colorado
, at the resort of Seven Falls
. They married in 1875 and she took the name Jackson, under which she was best known for her writings. She was a Unitarian.
admired her poetry and used several of her poems in his public readings. He included five of them in his anthology Parnassus.
She traveled widely. In the winter of 1873-1874 she was in Colorado Springs, Colorado
, in search of a cure for tuberculosis
. Here she met the man who would become her second husband. Over the next two years, she published three novels in the anonymous No Name Series, including Mercy Philbrick's Choice and Hetty's Strange History.
In 1879 her interests turned to Native Americans after hearing a lecture in Boston by the Ponca
Chief Standing Bear
. He described the forcible removal of the Ponca from their Nebraska
reservation
and transfer to the Quapaw
Reservation in Indian Territory
, where they suffered from disease, climate and poor supplies. Upset about the mistreatment of Native Americans by government agents, Jackson became an activist. She started investigating and publicizing government misconduct, circulating petitions, raising money, and writing letters to the New York Times
on behalf of the Ponca.
A fiery and prolific writer, Jackson engaged in heated exchanges with federal officials over the injustices committed against American Indians. Among her special targets was U.S. Secretary of Interior Carl Schurz
, whom she once called "the most adroit liar I ever knew." She exposed the government's violation of treaties with the American Indian tribes. She documented the corruption of US Indian agent
s, military officers, and settlers who encroached on and stole Indian lands.
Jackson won the support of several newspaper editors who published her reports. Among her correspondents were editor William Hayes Ward of the New York Independent, Richard Watson Guilder of the Century Magazine
, and publisher Whitelaw Reid
of the New York Daily Tribune
.
Jackson also wrote a book, the first published under her own name, condemning state and federal Indian policy, and detailing the history of broken treaties. A Century of Dishonor
(1882) called for significant reform in government policy toward Native Americans. Jackson sent a copy to every member of Congress
with a quote from Benjamin Franklin
printed in red on the cover: "Look upon your hands: they are stained with the blood of your relations." The New York Times later wrote that she "soon made enemies at Washington by her often unmeasured attacks, and while on general lines she did some good, her case was weakened by her inability, in some cases, to substantiate the charges she had made; hence many who were at first sympathetic fell away."
Jackson went to southern California for respite. Having been interested in the area's missions
and the Mission Indians
on an earlier visit, she began an in-depth study. While in Los Angeles
, she met Don Antonio Coronel, former mayor of the city and a well-known authority on early Californio
life in the area. He had served as inspector of missions for the Mexican
government. Coronel told her about the plight of the Mission Indians after 1833. They were buffeted by the secularization
policies of the Mexican government, as well as later U.S. policies, both of which led to their removal from mission lands. Under its original land grants, the Mexican government provided for resident Indians to continue to occupy such lands. After taking control of the territory in 1848, the U.S. generally disregarded such Mission Indian occupancy claims. In 1852, there were an estimated 15,000 Mission Indians in Southern California. By the time of Jackson's visit, they numbered fewer than 4,000.
Coronel's account inspired Jackson to action. The U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hiram Price
, recommended her appointment as an Interior Department agent. Jackson's assignment was to visit the Mission Indians, ascertain the location and condition of various bands, and determine what lands, if any, should be purchased for their use. With the help of the US Indian agent Abbot Kinney
, Jackson traveled throughout Southern California and documented conditions. At one point, she hired a law firm to protect the rights of a family of Saboba Indians facing dispossession from their land at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains
.
In 1883, Jackson completed her 56-page report. It recommended extensive government relief for the Mission Indians, including the purchase of new lands for reservations and the establishment of more Indian schools. A bill embodying her recommendations passed the U.S. Senate
but died in the House of Representatives
.
Jackson decided to write a novel to reach a wider audience. When she wrote Cornonel asking for details about early California and any romantic incidents he could remember, she explained her purpose:
Although Jackson started an outline in California, she began writing the novel in December 1883 in her New York hotel room, and completed it in about three months. Originally titled In The Name of the Law, she published it as Ramona
(1884). It featured Ramona, an orphan girl who was half Indian and half Scots, raised in Spanish Californio society, and her Indian husband Alessandro, and their struggles for land of their own. The characters were based on people known by Jackson and incidents which she had encountered. The book achieved rapid success among a wide public and was popular for generations; it was estimated to have been reprinted 300 times. Its romantic story also contributed to the growth of tourism to Southern California
.
One year after her death the North American Review
called Ramona "unquestionably the best novel yet produced by an American woman" and named it, along with Uncle Tom's Cabin, one of two most ethical
novels of the 19th century. Sixty years after its publication, 600,000 copies had been sold. There have been over 300 reissues to date and the book has never been out of print.
Encouraged by the popularity of her book, Jackson planned to write a children's story about Indian issues, but did not live to complete it. Her last letter was written to President Grover Cleveland
and said:
Jackson died of stomach cancer
in 1885 in San Francisco, California
. Her husband arranged for her burial on a one-acre plot on a high plateau overlooking Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her grave was later moved to Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs. Her estate was valued at $12,642,
She used her married names, Helen Hunt and Helen Jackson, but scholars now refer to her as Helen Hunt Jackson. The New York Times referred to her as Helen Hunt Jackson in 1885, reporting on her final illness, and in 1886, reporting on visitors to her grave.
Valery Sherer Mathes assessed the writer and her work:
Her friend Emily Dickinson once described her limitations: "she has the facts but not the phosphorescence."
Her novel was adapted as a film by the same name, released in 1910. It was directed by D. W. Griffith
and starred Mary Pickford
. In a review of the film, a journalist wrote about the novel, calling it "the long and lugubrious romance by Helen Hunt Jackson, over which America wept unnumbered gallons in the eighties and nineties," and complained of "the long, uneventful stretches of the novel." In reviewing the history of her publisher, Houghton Mifflin, a 1970 reviewer noted that Jackson typified the house's success: "Middle aged, middle class, middlebrow." The novel was adapted for films by the same name in 1928 and 1936 as well, and starred leading actresses.
A New York Times reviewer said of Ramona that "by one estimate, the book has been reprinted 300 times." The novel has been adapted for other media, including three films, stage, and television productions.
A portion of Jackson's Colorado home has been reconstructed in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and furnished with her possessions.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
by the U.S. government. She detailed the adverse effects of government actions in her history A Century of Dishonor
A Century of Dishonor
A Century of Dishonor is a non-fiction book by Helen Hunt Jackson that chronicles the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on examples of injustices....
(1881). Her novel Ramona
Ramona
Ramona is a 1884 United States historical novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. It is the story of a Scots-Native American orphan girl in Southern California, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely...
dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
and attracted considerable attention to her cause, although its popularity was based on its romantic and picturesque qualities rather than its political content. It was estimated to have been reprinted 300 times, and contributed to the growth of tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
The novel was adapted repeatedly for movies: in 1910 it was produced as a silent film Ramona
Ramona (1910 film)
Ramona is a 1910 short drama film directed by D. W. Griffith based on Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel Ramona. A copy of the print survives in the Library of Congress film archive.-Cast:* Mary Pickford - Ramona* Henry B. Walthall - Alessandro...
, directed by D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
and starring Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
. Other versions were made in 1928 and 1936.
Early years
She was born Helen Fiske in Amherst, MassachusettsAmherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
, the daughter of Nathan Welby Fiske and Deborah Waterman Vinal. She had two brothers, both of whom died after birth, and a sister Anne. Her father was a minister, author, and professor of Latin, Greek, and philosophy at Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
.
Her mother died in 1844 when Helen was fourteen, and her father three years later. Her father provided for her education and arranged for an aunt to care for her. Fiske attended Ipswich Female Seminary and the Abbott Institute, a boarding school run by Reverend J.S.C. Abbott in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. She was a classmate of the poet Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
, also from Amherst. The two corresponded for the rest of their lives, but few of their letters have survived.
Marriage and family
In 1852 at age 22, Fiske married U.S. Army Captain Edward Bissell Hunt. They had two sons, one of whom, Murray Hunt, died as an infant in 1854 of a brain disease. In 1863, her husband died in a military accident. Her second son, Rennie Hunt, died of diphtheriaDiphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
in 1865.
About 1873-1874, Hunt met William Sharpless Jackson, a wealthy banker and railroad executive, while visiting at Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
, at the resort of Seven Falls
Seven Falls
Seven Falls is a series of seven cascading waterfalls in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The sum of the height of the seven falls is 181 feet and there are a total of 224 steps on the staircase from the base of the falls to the peak. In the late 19th century, some of the associated property was...
. They married in 1875 and she took the name Jackson, under which she was best known for her writings. She was a Unitarian.
Career
Helen Hunt began writing after the deaths of her family members. She published her early work anonymously, usually under the name "H.H." EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
admired her poetry and used several of her poems in his public readings. He included five of them in his anthology Parnassus.
She traveled widely. In the winter of 1873-1874 she was in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
, in search of a cure for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Here she met the man who would become her second husband. Over the next two years, she published three novels in the anonymous No Name Series, including Mercy Philbrick's Choice and Hetty's Strange History.
In 1879 her interests turned to Native Americans after hearing a lecture in Boston by the Ponca
Ponca
The Ponca are a Native American people of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan-language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma...
Chief Standing Bear
Standing Bear
Standing Bear was a Ponca Native American chief who successfully argued in U.S...
. He described the forcible removal of the Ponca from their Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
and transfer to the Quapaw
Quapaw
The Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas.They are federally recognized as the Quapaw Tribe of Indians.-Government:...
Reservation in Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, where they suffered from disease, climate and poor supplies. Upset about the mistreatment of Native Americans by government agents, Jackson became an activist. She started investigating and publicizing government misconduct, circulating petitions, raising money, and writing letters to the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on behalf of the Ponca.
A fiery and prolific writer, Jackson engaged in heated exchanges with federal officials over the injustices committed against American Indians. Among her special targets was U.S. Secretary of Interior Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
, whom she once called "the most adroit liar I ever knew." She exposed the government's violation of treaties with the American Indian tribes. She documented the corruption of US Indian agent
Indian agent
In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with Native American tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.-Indian agents:*Leander Clark was agent for the Sac and Fox in Iowa beginning in 1866....
s, military officers, and settlers who encroached on and stole Indian lands.
Jackson won the support of several newspaper editors who published her reports. Among her correspondents were editor William Hayes Ward of the New York Independent, Richard Watson Guilder of the Century Magazine
The Century Magazine
The Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...
, and publisher Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid was a U.S. politician and newspaper editor, as well as the author of a popular history of Ohio in the Civil War.-Early life:...
of the New York Daily Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
.
Jackson also wrote a book, the first published under her own name, condemning state and federal Indian policy, and detailing the history of broken treaties. A Century of Dishonor
A Century of Dishonor
A Century of Dishonor is a non-fiction book by Helen Hunt Jackson that chronicles the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on examples of injustices....
(1882) called for significant reform in government policy toward Native Americans. Jackson sent a copy to every member of Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
with a quote from Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
printed in red on the cover: "Look upon your hands: they are stained with the blood of your relations." The New York Times later wrote that she "soon made enemies at Washington by her often unmeasured attacks, and while on general lines she did some good, her case was weakened by her inability, in some cases, to substantiate the charges she had made; hence many who were at first sympathetic fell away."
Jackson went to southern California for respite. Having been interested in the area's missions
Mission (station)
A religious mission or mission station is a location for missionary work.While primarily a Christian term, the concept of the religious "mission" is also used prominently by the Church of Scientology and their Scientology Missions International....
and the Mission Indians
Mission Indians
Mission Indians is a term for many Native California tribes, primarily living in coastal plains, adjacent inland valleys and mountains, and on the Channel Islands in central and southern California, United States. The tribes had established comparatively peaceful cultures varying from 250 to 8,000...
on an earlier visit, she began an in-depth study. While in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, she met Don Antonio Coronel, former mayor of the city and a well-known authority on early Californio
Californio
Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
life in the area. He had served as inspector of missions for the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
government. Coronel told her about the plight of the Mission Indians after 1833. They were buffeted by the secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
policies of the Mexican government, as well as later U.S. policies, both of which led to their removal from mission lands. Under its original land grants, the Mexican government provided for resident Indians to continue to occupy such lands. After taking control of the territory in 1848, the U.S. generally disregarded such Mission Indian occupancy claims. In 1852, there were an estimated 15,000 Mission Indians in Southern California. By the time of Jackson's visit, they numbered fewer than 4,000.
Coronel's account inspired Jackson to action. The U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hiram Price
Hiram Price
Hiram Price was a nineteenth-century banker, merchant, bookkeeper, bank president, railroad president, and five-term Republican congressman from Iowa's 2nd congressional district....
, recommended her appointment as an Interior Department agent. Jackson's assignment was to visit the Mission Indians, ascertain the location and condition of various bands, and determine what lands, if any, should be purchased for their use. With the help of the US Indian agent Abbot Kinney
Abbot Kinney
Abbot Kinney was a developer and conservationist. Kinney is best known for his "Venice of America" development in Los Angeles.-Early life:...
, Jackson traveled throughout Southern California and documented conditions. At one point, she hired a law firm to protect the rights of a family of Saboba Indians facing dispossession from their land at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains
San Jacinto Mountains
The San Jacinto Mountains are a mountain range east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mountains are named for Saint Hyacinth . The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the spine of the range.The range extends for approximately from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to...
.
In 1883, Jackson completed her 56-page report. It recommended extensive government relief for the Mission Indians, including the purchase of new lands for reservations and the establishment of more Indian schools. A bill embodying her recommendations passed the U.S. Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
but died in the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
.
Jackson decided to write a novel to reach a wider audience. When she wrote Cornonel asking for details about early California and any romantic incidents he could remember, she explained her purpose:
"I am going to write a novel, in which will be set forth some Indian experiences in a way to move people's hearts. People will read a novel when they will not read serious books." She was inspired by her friend Harriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
's Uncle Tom's CabinUncle Tom's CabinUncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
(1852). "If I could write a story that would do for the Indian one-hundredth part what Uncle Tom's Cabin did for the Negro, I would be thankful the rest of my life," she wrote.
Although Jackson started an outline in California, she began writing the novel in December 1883 in her New York hotel room, and completed it in about three months. Originally titled In The Name of the Law, she published it as Ramona
Ramona
Ramona is a 1884 United States historical novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. It is the story of a Scots-Native American orphan girl in Southern California, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely...
(1884). It featured Ramona, an orphan girl who was half Indian and half Scots, raised in Spanish Californio society, and her Indian husband Alessandro, and their struggles for land of their own. The characters were based on people known by Jackson and incidents which she had encountered. The book achieved rapid success among a wide public and was popular for generations; it was estimated to have been reprinted 300 times. Its romantic story also contributed to the growth of tourism to Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
One year after her death the North American Review
North American Review
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. Founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others, it was published continuously until 1940, when publication was suspended due to J. H. Smyth, who had purchased the magazine, being unmasked as a Japanese...
called Ramona "unquestionably the best novel yet produced by an American woman" and named it, along with Uncle Tom's Cabin, one of two most ethical
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
novels of the 19th century. Sixty years after its publication, 600,000 copies had been sold. There have been over 300 reissues to date and the book has never been out of print.
Encouraged by the popularity of her book, Jackson planned to write a children's story about Indian issues, but did not live to complete it. Her last letter was written to President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
and said:
"From my death bed I send you message of heartfelt thanks for what you have already done for the Indians. I ask you to read my Century of Dishonor. I am dying happier for the belief I have that it is your hand that is destined to strike the first steady blow toward lifting this burden of infamy from our country and righting the wrongs of the Indian race."Jackson wrote, "My Century of Dishonor and Ramona are the only things I have done of which I am glad....They will live, and...bear fruit."
Jackson died of stomach cancer
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer, commonly referred to as stomach cancer, can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus, lungs, lymph nodes, and the liver...
in 1885 in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. Her husband arranged for her burial on a one-acre plot on a high plateau overlooking Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her grave was later moved to Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs. Her estate was valued at $12,642,
She used her married names, Helen Hunt and Helen Jackson, but scholars now refer to her as Helen Hunt Jackson. The New York Times referred to her as Helen Hunt Jackson in 1885, reporting on her final illness, and in 1886, reporting on visitors to her grave.
Valery Sherer Mathes assessed the writer and her work:
Ramona may not have been another Uncle Tom's Cabin, but it served, along with Jackson's writings on the Mission Indians of California, as a catalyst for other reformers ....Helen Hunt Jackson cared deeply for the Indians of California. She cared enough to undermine her health while devoting the last few years of her life to bettering their lives. Her enduring writings, therefore, provided a legacy to other reformers, who cherished her work enough to carry on her struggle and at least try to improve the lives of America's first inhabitants.
Her friend Emily Dickinson once described her limitations: "she has the facts but not the phosphorescence."
Her novel was adapted as a film by the same name, released in 1910. It was directed by D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
and starred Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
. In a review of the film, a journalist wrote about the novel, calling it "the long and lugubrious romance by Helen Hunt Jackson, over which America wept unnumbered gallons in the eighties and nineties," and complained of "the long, uneventful stretches of the novel." In reviewing the history of her publisher, Houghton Mifflin, a 1970 reviewer noted that Jackson typified the house's success: "Middle aged, middle class, middlebrow." The novel was adapted for films by the same name in 1928 and 1936 as well, and starred leading actresses.
Legacy
Jackson's A Century of Dishonor remains in print, as does a collection of her poetry.A New York Times reviewer said of Ramona that "by one estimate, the book has been reprinted 300 times." The novel has been adapted for other media, including three films, stage, and television productions.
A portion of Jackson's Colorado home has been reconstructed in the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum and furnished with her possessions.
Memorials
- The Helen Hunt Jackson BranchHelen Hunt Jackson BranchHelen Hunt Jackson Branch is a former branch library of the Los Angeles Public Library. The Spanish Colonial Revival building was built in 1926 based on a design by architect C.E. Noerenberg...
of the Los Angeles Public Library is a Mission/Spanish Revival style-building built in 1925. It is listed on the National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
- The largest collection of the papers of Helen Hunt Jackson is held at Colorado College.
- A high school in Hemet, CaliforniaHemet, CaliforniaHemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California, United States. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 78,657 at the 2010 census....
, and an elementary school in Temecula were named after her.
- Helen Hunt Falls, located in North Cheyenne Canyon in Colorado Springs, was named in her memory.
Works
- Bits about Home Matters (1873)
- Saxe Holm's Stories (1874)
- Mercy Philbrick's Choice (1876)
- Hetty's Strange History(1877)
- Bits of Talk in Verse and Prose for Young Folks (1876)
- Bits of Travel at Home (1878)
- Nelly's Silver Mine: A Story of Colorado Life (1878)
- Letters from a Cat (1879)
- A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with some of the Indian Tribes (1882)
- Ramona (1884)
- Zeph: A Posthumous Story (1885)
- Glimpses of Three Coasts (1886)
- Between Whiles (1888)
- A Calendar of Sonnets (1891)
- Ryan Thomas (1892)
- The Hunter Cats of Connorloa (1894)
Sources
- Evelyn I. Banning, Helen Hunt Jackson (NY: Vanguard Press, 1973)
- Valerie Sherer Mathes, Helen Hunt Jackson and Her Indian Reform Legacy (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1992)
- Valerie Sherer Mathes, ed., Indian Reform Letters of Helen Hunt Jackson, 1879–1885 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press)
- Antoinette May, Helen Hunt Jackson: A Lonely Voice of Conscience (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1987)
- Dennis McDougal, Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty (Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2001)
- Kate Phillips, Helen Hunt Jackson: A Literary Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)
- Ruth Webb O'Dell, Helen Hunt Jackson (NY: Appleton-Century, 1939)
- Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era (NY: Oxford University Press, 1985)
- Mark I. West., ed., Helen Hunt Jackson: Selected Colorado Writings (Filter Press, 2002)
External links
- Colorado College Special Collections: "Helen Hunt Jackson"
- "September" by Helen Hunt Jackson
- Papers, Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst, MA
- Poet's Corner: "Helen Hunt Jackson"