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J.L. Rose

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Born

in Springfield, MA, The United States

Website

https://www.beforethemayflower.com

Genre

Historical Fiction

Member Since

August 2019

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscombeforethemayflower

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A Massachusetts native, Jennifer Sinsigalli, pen name J.L. Rose, has called Duxbury home since 2015. The mother of thirteen-year-old twins, and wife of an Ocean Spray employee, her family was fortunate to have the chance to relocate to historic Duxbury, where she could work at Plimoth Plantation as a historic interpreter, and complete her extensively researched novel, Before the Mayflower.

The project began in 2003, the pursuit ignited by a visit to the Mayflower ll, in Plymouth Harbor. What captured the author’s eye was a panel featuring the landscape of a town in the Netherlands. She found the story leading up to the crossing, especially the more than decade of refuge spent in Leiden, to be an important and fascinating piece deserving more A Massachusetts native, Jennifer Sinsigalli, pen name J.L. Rose, has called Duxbury home since 2015. The mother of thirteen-year-old twins, and wife of an Ocean Spray employee, her family was fortunate to have the chance to relocate to historic Duxbury, where she could work at Plimoth Plantation as a historic interpreter, and complete her extensively researched novel, Before the Mayflower.

The project began in 2003, the pursuit ignited by a visit to the Mayflower ll, in Plymouth Harbor. What captured the author’s eye was a panel featuring the landscape of a town in the Netherlands. She found the story leading up to the crossing, especially the more than decade of refuge spent in Leiden, to be an important and fascinating piece deserving more attention and detail.

Sinsigalli, a 1996 graduate of Williams College, had an interest in Dutch art and 17th Dutch history, after taking a course on this topic during her studies. The cover of the book, a painting by Hendrick Avercamp from c.1608, Winter Landscape with Skaters, which hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, beautifully captures the people of all classes from that period.

For fifteen years, research and writing progressed, with rare books requested from places like Brown University, the Boston Public Library, Wheaton College, and Plimoth Plantation. The quest for accuracy took her to London, Scrooby and Gainsborough in England, and Amsterdam and Leiden, among other places in both England and the Netherlands. Many hours with historians and other passionate people all contributed to capturing the details of the thirty-three years before the Mayflower crossing; from religion to daily life, to the perils of fleeing one country to take refuge in another, and then to consider repeating that risky act.
Brewster, Bradford, Carver, Robinson, and Standish- these people and their families tell the story best, connected closely to a London printer and his family. The connection to Duxbury remains, through people like Brewster and Standish, and is something we should be proud of, living here today. The novel, although historic fiction, has been accepted as credible by some of the finest institutions in the world, and is being sold by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Pieterskerk in Leiden, and both Pilgrim Hall and Plimoth Plantation. A portion of the proceeds will return to these and other churches and museums honoring and keeping this history alive.

Keeping History Alive. . . A portion of the proceeds from this book will be donated to Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA) and The American Leiden Pilgrim Museum (Leiden, the Netherlands). Donations will also be offered to the Pieterskerk, Hooglandsekerk, and Weaver’s House Museum (Leiden, the Netherlands), as well as the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). ...more

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Average rating: 3.96 · 49 ratings · 16 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

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