HELEN JACKSON'S WORK.
A KEY TO "RAMONA."
A Century of Dishonor.
A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings with some of the Indian Tribes.
A New Edition. 12mo. pp. 514. Cloth. $1.50.
Mrs. Jackson devoted a whole year of her life to writing and compiling materials for "A Century of Dishonor," and while thus engaged she mentally resolved to follow it with a story which should have for its motif the cause of the Indian. After completing her "Report on the Condition and Needs of the Mission Indians of California" (see Appendix, p. 458) she set herself down to this task, and "Ramona" is the result. This was in New York in the winter of 1883-84, and while thus engaged she wrote her publisher that she seemed to have the whole story at her fingers' ends, and nothing but physical impossibility prevented her from finishing it at a sitting. Alluding to it again on her death-bed, she wrote: "I did not write Ramona;' it was written through me. My life-blood went into it,—all I had thought, felt, and suffered for five years on the Indian question."
The report made by Mrs. Jackson and Mr. Kinney is grave, concise, and deeply interesting. It is added to the Appendix of this new edition of her book. In this California journey Mrs. Jackson found the materials for "Ramona," the Indian novel, which was the last important work of her life, and in which nearly all the incidents are taken from life. In the report of the Mission Indians will be found the story of the Temecula removal, and the tragedy of Alessandro's death, as they appear in "Ramona."—Boston Daily Advertiser.
Mrs. Jackson's Letter of Gratitude to the President.
The following letter from Mrs. Jackson to the President was written by her four days before her death, Aug. 12, 1885:—
To Grover Cleveland President of the United States:
Dear Sir,—From my death-bed I send you a 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.
LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Publishers
254 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.
