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Jane G. Austin

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Jane Goodwin Austin
BornMary Jane Goodwin
(1831-02-25)February 25, 1831
Worcester, Massachusetts
DiedMarch 30, 1894(1894-03-30) (aged 63)
Boston, Massachusetts
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
GenreHistorical fiction
Notable worksBetty Alden: the first-born daughter of the Pilgrims[1]
SpouseHenry Austin
ChildrenRose Standish Austin, Le Baron Loring Austin, Lilian Ivers De Silva

Jane Goodwin Austin (Feb. 25, 1831 - March 30, 1894), born Mary Jane Goodwin, was an American writer, notable for her popular stories of the time. During her lifetime, she was the author of 24 books and numerous short stories.[2] Her friends throughout her life were some of the most well-known American authors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott.[3]

Life

Austin was born on February 25, 1831, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to Isaac Goodwin and Elizabeth Hammatt.[4] Her parents were from Plymouth and could trace eight distinct family lines back to the Pilgrims.[5] Jane's father, a lawyer, antiquary and genealogist, died in 1833, when she was only two. Behind him, he left a large archive of historical and legal documents from the Pilgrims. Her works, mostly historical fiction regarding the lives of the Pilgrims and their descendants, were accurate and reasonable through the impact her father's love of history had had on her.[4] Her brother, John A. Goodwin, had also written a book on the Pilgrims, The Pilgrim Republic. Her mother was a poet and song writer, and told Jane many stories of her ancestors, especially of Francis Le Baron — the nameless nobleman — and his descendants.[5] As a child, she was educated at nine different private schools in Boston.[1]

In 1850, she married Loring H. Austin, a classmate of James Russell Lowell. She lived for several years in Cambridge, and afterward in Concord, but her later life was chiefly spent in Boston.[6]

Works

  • Fairy Dreams (Boston, 1859)
  • Dora Darling (Boston, 1864)
  • Outpost: A Novel (1886)
  • Cipher: A Romance (New York, 1869)
  • The Shadow of Moloch Mountain (1870)
  • Mrs. Beauchamp Brown (Boston, 1880)
  • A Nameless Nobleman (1881)
  • The Desmond Hundred (1882)
  • Standish of Standish (1889)
  • Dr. Le Baron and his Daughter (1891)
  • David Alden's Daughter, and other Stories (1892)

She wrote a great number of magazine stories and some poems.

References

  1. ^ a b "Jane G. Austin-with-an-"i"". Pilgrim Hall Museum. May 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-25.
  2. ^ "Jane Goodwin Austin: Introduction". Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. 1996. Retrieved 2009-12-25.
  3. ^ "Jane Goodwin Austin: Literary Friendships". Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. 1996. Retrieved 2009-12-25.
  4. ^ a b "Jane Goodwin Austin: Biography". Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. 1996. Retrieved 2009-12-25.
  5. ^ a b Frances E. Willard; Mary A. R. Livermore (1897). American women. Vol. 1. p. 36.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Austin, Jane Goodwin" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. Vol. Supplement. New York: D. Appleton.

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