The news of the death of Mrs. Helen Jackson--better known as
"H.H."--will probably carry a pang of regret into more American homes
than similar intelligence in regard to any other woman, with the
possible exception of Mrs. H.B. Stowe, who belongs to an earlier
literary generation.
Helen Maria (Fiske) Jackson was the daughter of Prof. Nathan W. Fiske,
of Amherst College, whose "Manual of Classical Literature," based on
that of Eschenberg, was long in use in our colleges, and who wrote
several other books. She was born in Amherst, Mass., October 18, 1831;
her mother's maiden name being Vinal. The daughter was educated in part
at Ipswich (Mass.) Female Seminary, and in part at the school of the
Rev. J.S.C. Abbott in New York city. She was married to Captain
(afterward Major) Edward B. Hunt, an eminent engineer officer of the
United States Army. Major Hunt was a man of scientific attainments quite
unusual in his profession, was a member of various learned societies,
and for some time an assistant professor at West Point. He contributed
to one of the early volumes of the _Atlantic Monthly_ (xii, 794) a
paper on "Military Bridges." His wife resided with him at various
military stations--West Point, Washington, Newport, R.I., etc.--and they
had several children, all of whom died very young except one boy,
Rennie, who lived to the age of eight or ten, showing extraordinary
promise. His death and that of Major Hunt--who was killed in 1863 by the
discharge of suffocating vapors from a submarine battery of his own
invention--left Mrs. Hunt alone in the world, and she removed her
residence a year or two after to Newport, R.I., where the second period
of her life began.
Up to this time she had given absolutely no signs of literary talent.
She had been absorbed in her duties as wife and mother, and had been
fond of society, in which she was always welcome because of her
vivacity, wit, and ready sympathy. In Newport she found herself, from
various causes, under strong literary influences, appealing to tastes
that developed rapidly in herself. She soon began to publish poems, one
of the first of which, if not the first--a translation from Victor
Hugo--appeared in the _Nation_. Others of her poems, perhaps her
best--including the sonnets "Burnt Ships" and "Ariadne's
Farewell"--appeared also in the _Nation_. Not long after, she began
to print short papers on domestic subjects in the _Independent_ and
elsewhere, and soon found herself thoroughly embarked in a literary
career. Her first poem in the _Atlantic Monthly_ appeared in
February, 1869; and her volume of "Verses" was printed at her own
expense in 1870, being reprinted with some enlargement in 1871. and
again, almost doubled in size, in 1874. Her "Bits of Travel" (1872) was
made up of sketches of a tour in Europe in 1868-9; a portion of these,
called "Encyclicals of a Traveller," having been originally written as
circular letters to her many friends and then printed--rather against
her judgment, but at the urgent request of Mr. J.T. Fields--almost
precisely as they were written. Upon this followed "Bits of Talk About
Home Matters" (1873), "Bits of Talk for Young Folks" (1876), and "Bits of
Travel at Home" (1878). These, with a little poem called "The Story of
Boon," constituted, for some time, all her acknowledged volumes; but it
is now no secret that she wrote two of the most successful novels of the
_No Name_ series--"Mercy Philbrick's Choice" (1876) and "Hetty's
Strange History" (1877). We do not propose here to enter into the vexed
question of the authorship of the "Saxe Holme" stories, which appeared
in the early volumes of _Scribner's Monthly_, and were published in
two volumes (1873, 1878). The secret was certainly very well kept, and
in spite of her denials, they were very often attributed to her by
readers and critics.
Her residence in Newport as a busy and successful literary woman thus
formed a distinct period of her life, quite apart from the epoch which
preceded it and from the later one which followed. A change soon came.
Her health was never very strong, and she was liable to severe attacks
of diphtheria, to relieve which she tried the climate of Colorado. She
finally took up her residence there, and was married about 1876, to
William S. Jackson, a merchant of Colorado Springs. She had always had
the greatest love for travel and exploration, and found unbounded field
for this in her new life, driving many miles a day over precipitous
roads, and thinking little of crossing the continent by rail from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. In the course of these journeys she became
profoundly interested in the wrongs of the Indians, and for the rest of
her life all literary interests and ambitions were utterly subordinated
to this. During a winter of hard work at the Astor Library in New York
she prepared her "Century of Dishonor" (1881). As one result of this
book she was appointed by the United States Government as one of two
commissioners (Abbot Kinney being the other) to examine and report upon
"the condition and needs of the Mission Indians of California." Their
report, to which Mrs. Jackson's name is first signed, is dated at
Colorado Springs, July 13, 1883, and is a thoroughly business-like
document of thirty-five pages. A new edition of "A Century of Dishonor"
containing this report is just ready by her publishers, Messrs Roberts
Brothers.
As another fruit of this philanthropic interest, she wrote, during
another winter in this city, her novel, "Ramona," a book composed with
the greatest rapidity, and printed first in the _Christian Union_,
afterward appearing in a volume in 1884. Its sole object was further to
delineate the wrongs of the aborigines. Besides these two books, she
wrote, during this later period, some children's stories, "Nelly's
Silver Mine, a Story of Colorado Life" (1878), and three little volumes
of tales about cats. But her life-work, as she viewed it at the end, was
in her two books in behalf of the Indians.
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