Standish of Standish

Jane Goodwin Austin opens this 1889 novel aboard the Mayflower in November 1620, still at anchor off Cape Cod, the women arguing about laundry. From there it follows Plymouth through the killing first winter and the colony’s early years. Myles Standish, the blunt military captain, holds the center, but William Bradford, Samoset, the Wampanoag guests at the harvest feast and the colony’s women move through it, the women given far more room than the historical record grants them. Austin reworks the Standish, Priscilla Molines and John Alden triangle Longfellow had made famous, pitching it closer to domestic drama than legend. It sold heavily, ran through twenty-eight printings, and was handed to schoolchildren as history. That last fact is most of its interest now: the popular picture of the Pilgrims, the First Thanksgiving included, was largely invented here rather than recorded.