Jane Goodwin Austin
Jane Goodwin Austin, born Mary Jane Goodwin on February 25, 1831, in Worcester, Massachusetts, was an influential American author known for her diverse body of work and strong female characters. Growing up in a privileged family with deep roots tracing back to the Mayflower, Austin was immersed in a literary environment, with her mother being a published poet and her father an amateur historian. After a brief hiatus from writing during her early marriage and child-rearing years, she re-entered the literary scene in Concord, Massachusetts, a hub for renowned authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott.
Austin's writing evolved through various genres, including adventure novels featuring courageous women, gothic romances with sensational themes, and stories rooted in the historical experiences of early settlers. Notably, her book "Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims" (1889) achieved bestseller status and highlighted her commitment to historical accuracy and intricate character development. Although she experienced considerable success during her lifetime and contributed significantly to American literature, her legacy today is particularly recognized for her strong female protagonists who navigate complex moral landscapes. Austin passed away on March 30, 1894, leaving behind a rich literary heritage that reflects both the challenges of her time and her belief in self-reliance.
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Jane Goodwin Austin
Writer
- Born: February 25, 1831
- Birthplace: Worcester, Massachusetts
- Died: March 30, 1894
- Place of death: United States
Biography
Jane Goodwin Austin (born Mary Jane Goodwin), whose maternal and paternal sides both traced their lineage to the Mayflower, was born February 25, 1831, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Austin grew up in a privileged household rich in its awareness of its ancestry. Her father (who died when she was two) was a lawyer and an amateur historian, and her mother was a published poet. After being moved to Boston after her father’s death, Austin, an inveterate reader educated at private schools, discovered what would become her lifelong love of storytelling, publishing her first stories while still in her teens. Marrying Loring Henry Austin in 1840 and then raising three children, however, suspended for nearly a dozen years her writing career.
In 1860, the Austins moved to Concord, where Jane found herself at the hub of America’s premier cultural center, meeting Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and, most profoundly, Louisa May Alcott. Initially, Austin contributed stories to magazines but also wrote adventure novels that often centered around strong-willed women, including her landmark Dora Darling: The Daughter of the Regiment (1864), about a courageous young woman, a Union sympathizer in the South, who ends up a refugee with a regiment from the Union Army. Under the influence of Alcott, however, Austin (like most women novelists of her time) wrote the sensational gothic romances that dominated the reading market, most notably Cipher: A Romance (1869), which exploited the more lurid elements of the genre, including forbidden love, illegitimate children, and extravagantly convoluted murders.
Although she found success, Austin, who had moved to Boston, began in the 1880’s to experiment with the emerging trend in realism. After completing a novel of manners set in contemporary Boston, she turned her particular focus on stories centered around Plymouth and the Nantucket Islands she knew so well. Austin, recalling her childhood days immersed in the lore of the Puritan colony, began what would become a quartet of books that brought to life the Plymouth world, books that recreated with a historian’s commitment to accuracy and an artist’s eye for detail and character the difficult conditions of the first generation of English settlers in the New World. Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims (1889) alone enjoyed best- seller status, going through nearly thirty printings, as well as finding success on stage.
Austin’s ferocious commitment to writing (she is rumored to have set aside the first of October of each year to start a new novel) permitted her to complete a number of gothic romances as well as children’s books, poetry, and volumes of short stories. However, when she died on March 30, 1894, Austin was widely hailed for her re-creation of the Pilgrim life in early New England. Although her wide popularity, her embrace of realism, and her relationship with the Concord literary scene make her an important part of nineteenth century American literary history, Austin is celebrated now for her strong female characters (influenced by her belief in Emerson’s code of self-reliance), who must grapple with moral dilemmas that test the implications of sin and the difficult struggle to live the Christian life.