“If I could write a story that would do for the Indian a thousandth part of what <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> did for the Negro,” wrote Helen Hunt Jackson, “I would be thankful the rest of my life.” Jackson surpassed this ambition with the publication of <i>Ramona</i>, her popular 1884 romantic bestseller. <br><br>A beautiful half Native American, half-Scottish orphan raised by a harsh Mexican <i>ranchera</i>, Ramona enters into a forbidden love affair with a heroic Mission Indian named Alessandro. The pair's adventures after they elope paint a vivid portrait of California history and the woeful fate of Native Americans and Mexicans whose lands and rights were stripped as Anglo-Americans overran southern California. <br><br>Set from the first American edition of 1884, this Modern Library Paperback Classic includes José Martí's 1888 prologue (translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen).