Helen (Fiske) Hunt Jackson

Helen (Fiske) Hunt Jackson 1830-85, American writer whose pseudonym was H. H., b. Amherst, Mass. She was a lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson . In 1863, encouraged by T. W. Higginson , Jackson began writing for periodicals. She is the author of poetry, novels, children's stories, and travel sketches. In 1881 she published A Century of Dishonor, an historical account of the government's injustice to Native Americans. This book led to her appointment (1882) as government investigator of the Mission of California. She subsequently wrote Ramona (1884), her famous romance, which presented even more emphatically the plight of Native Americans.

Bibliography: See biography by K. Philips (2003).

Jackson, Helen [Maria] Hunt (1830–85), was born at Amherst, Mass., and in 1863 began to write poetry for publication, which was collected in Verses by H.H. (1870) and Sonnets and Lyrics (1886). Later she wrote a travel book, children's books, many magazine contributions, and several novels. A Century of Dishonor (1881) is a historical account of governmental injustice in the treatment of the Indians, and her indictment was stated even more strongly in the romance Ramona (1884), inspired by her work in a government investigation of the Mission Indians. Her novel Mercy Philbrick's Choice (1876) is said to be a fictional study of her friend Emily Dickinson. Many of her early writings were published under the pseudonym Saxe Holm.

H.H., pseudonym of Helen Hunt Jackson.