Cecilia Viets Jamison was a British North American-born American writer whose career spanned the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born Cecilia Viets Dakin in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, she relocated to Boston with her family during her teenage years. Jamison received a cosmopolitan education, studying at private schools in Canada, New York, Boston, and Paris. Following her first marriage to George Hamilton around 1860, she spent three years studying art in Rome. It was there that she met the renowned poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who recognized her literary potential, encouraged her writing career, and supported the publication of her 1872 book, Woven of Many Threads.
Jamison's early literary output was primarily aimed at adult readers and featured European settings, reflecting her extensive travels and artistic training. Notable early works included Something to Do: A Novel (1871) and A Crown from the Spear (1872). She contributed widely to prominent periodicals of her era, including Harper's Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, Appletons' Journal, St. Nicholas Magazine, and the Journal of American Folklore. Upon returning to the United States, she also became an active participant in the literary salon of Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis.
In 1878, she married her second husband, Samuel Jamison, a New Orleans lawyer. The couple resided near Thibodaux, Louisiana, before moving to New Orleans in 1887. This relocation deeply influenced her writing; in 1891, she transitioned to writing for younger audiences with her highly successful novel Lady Jane. Set in New Orleans, the book achieved international success and was translated into French, Italian, German, and Norwegian. Following her husband's death in 1902, Jamison returned to Massachusetts, where she lived until her death from heart disease in 1909.
