Zeph

Although Helen Hunt Jackson's works were immensely popular during her lifetime, most are now dismissed for their sentimentality. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, Helen Fiske began her career writing travel sketches and poetry, which were recognized by Thomas W. Higginson. She later wrote didactic stories for children, as well as novels and stories about strong New England women. She is best known for her indictment of the U.S. government's policies toward Native Americans, which she denounced in A Century of Dishonor (1881), Report on the Conditions and Needs of the Mission Indians (1883), and especially in her ever-popular romance novel, Ramona (1910). This last is the story of a "half-breed Indian" who, with her husband, faces land fraud and prejudice in southern California.

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