Helen Hunt Essay, Research Paper

Helen Hunt Jackson is famous for being a profound American

novelist. Helen’s most famous for her novels A Century of Dishoner

and Ramona. Born as Helen Fiske in Amherst, Massachusettes on

October 15, 1830 died as Helen Hunt Jackson in San Francisco,

California on August 12, 1885.

Helen marrie Edward Bissel Hunt in 1852. Together they had two

sons whom both passed away at young ages. Edward also died in 1865.

Already having a traumatizing childhood and having only written a few

short stories, poems, and childrens stories by the age of 35, Helen moved

to Newport feeling she had nothing to live for. There her first poems

appeared in the Nation, and her first articles appeared in the Independent.

This gave her new hope for a fresh start using writing as a career.

In 1873 Helen met William Sharpless Jackson whom she married in

1875. Shortly after thier marriage Helen began collecting data for

subjects concerning the novel Century of Dishoner. The most famous

paragraph in the novel is as such :

The story of one [ Indian ] tribe is the story of all . . . . Colorado is as greedy and unjust in 1880 as was Georgia in 1830, and Ohio in 1795; and the United States Government breaks promises now as deftly as then, and with an added ingenuity from long practice . . . . Cheating, robbing, breaking promises – these three are clearly things which must cease to be done. One more thing, also, and that is the refusal of the protection of the law to the Indians’ property, “of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” When these four things have ceased to be done, time, statesmanship, philantrophy, and Christianity can slowly and surely do the rest. Till these four things hace ceased to be done, statesmanship and philantrophy alike must work in vain, and even Christianity can reap but small harvest.

Published in 1881, Helen sent the novel to each member of

Congress. The novel was written and sent to them to show how the

United States Government had mistreated the Indians in the past decades.

Soon after the novel A Century of Dishonor was written and sent to

Congress, Helen was appointed as special commisioner to investigate the

condition of Mission Indians. Helen issued a report in 1883 that did not

secure any amelioration of the situation. This left her enraged which led

her to write the novel Ramona. Ramona was written to fictionize the

Indians plight. When published the novel was publicly famous as a

romance story of fictional characters Ramona and Alessandro. Ramona

was made into a motion picture in 1910, 1916, and in 1928.

Soon after Ramona was published Helen broke her leg in which she

never recovered from . This led to the discovery of cancer in Helen. She

was taken to be treated in Los Angeles and also in San Francisco. She

died the next summer in San Francisco and was buried by request beneath

a cairn on the top of Cheyenne Mountain. Later her remains were moved

to a cemetary to avoid vandalism .