The subject of David Lindsay's Mayflower Bastard is Richard More, a distant kinsman of Lindsay's. More, the 5-year-old, illegitimate offspring of a headstrong Shropshire woman and a man of "mean parentage," arrived in the New World on the Mayflower. He would live long enough to witness the hysteria of the Salem witch trials--and see a friend, accused of wizardry, "pressed" to death by stones. More was a sea captain, merchant, and tavern keeper. He was also an adulterer and a bigamist, whose wives lived on both sides of the Atlantic, forcing him to appear a Puritan in one country, and anything but in the other. What emerges is an intimate portrait of a world hardly holy--far more venal, vindictive, complex, and, especially, litigious than is usually believed. Lindsay's account is a stylistic mélange of first-person, second-person, and third-person history sprinkled with a few present-day anecdotes, in which the author retraces some of More's journeys. While this unorthodox approach lends the subject matter a certain gravity, at times it is merely obfuscatory. --H. O'Billovich


From Publishers Weekly
Histories based on genealogy often suffer from tunnel vision. Lindsay commits the opposite offense in this tale of one Richard More, a Lindsay ancestor who sailed at age five to the Plymouth colony aboard the Mayflower. In using the story of "the Mayflower Bastard" (so-called because More was the illegitimate son of landed gentry) as a lens through which to view early New England history, Lindsay has created a sprawling tale that exhausts the reader's patience as a cast of thousands parades through dozens of familiar scenes most extensively treated elsewhere. Lindsay's strategy is understandable. Little documentation on More, a Salem seafarer and tavern keeper, has survived; even his date of death is unknown. In the hands of a deft writer, the resulting fictionalization and speculation can work brilliantly, but this author is, at best, workmanlike. Lindsay, whose previous books explore inventors and inventions, also falters when choosing a narrative voice. At several points, he addresses a mysterious "you" apparently the accuser who had the elderly More cast out of the church for "lasciviousness." In other places Lindsay lapses into the first person. One of those asides is a gross sexual escapade Lindsay shared with a sailor friend, which the author includes to prove that sailors then and now did not share the moral code of the God-fearing Puritans. Aside from questionable historicity of such a comparison, no reader picking up a book about this nation's origins should be exposed to such a gratuitously offensive interjection. Still, some Mayflower buffs may want this volulme.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Lindsay, author of three books about the history of inventions and inventors, unspools the life of Richard More, an obscure and distant ancestor, and his role as one of the members of the early Massachusetts Puritan settlement. More sailed as an infant on the Mayflower in 1620 and lived through the infamous Salem witch trials of the 1690s. Lindsay set out not to trace his genealogical ties to More but to try to describe the remarkable aspects of this virtually unknown man. Despite his prodigious research, mostly in public records of the colony and complemented by secondary research from historians, Lindsay has had to rely much on supposition to paste his story together. Context is also problematic: Lindsay fails to suggest much of the importance of More's story for a broader analysis, in spite of his obvious awareness of contemporary historical research on Puritan society. Lindsay prefers to personalize his story, often using the first and second person in his writing to demonstrate that More is virtually his only focus. The book is interesting but not a scholarly treatment. For libraries with a special interest in the Pilgrims or the Plymouth colony. Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
David Lindsay, researching old records to learn details of the life of his ancestor, Richard More, soon found himself in the position of the Sorcerer's Apprentice-wherever he looked for one item, ten more appeared. What he found illuminated not only More's own life but painted a clear and satisfying picture of the way the First Comers, Saints and Strangers alike, set off for the new land, suffered the voyage on the Mayflower, and put down their roots to thrive on our continent's northeastern shore. From the story, Richard emerges as a man of questionable morals, much enterprise, and a good deal of old-fashioned pluck, a combination that could get him into trouble-and often did. He lived to father several children, to see, near the end of his life, a friend executed as a witch in Salem, and to be read out of the church for unseemly behavior. Mayflower Bastard lets readers see history in a new light by turning an important episode into a personal experience.



About the Author
David Lindsay has previously published several books, including The Patent Files: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Invention and Madness in the Making: The Triumphant Rise and Untimely Fall of America's Show Inventors . He has also written for New York Press, American Heritage, The Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal and The American Experience. In addition to being a successful historian, he is also a founding member of the music groups the Klezmatics and They Might Be Giants. David Lindsay lives in New York City

FROM THE PUBLISHER

David Lindsay, researching old records to learn details of the life of his ancestor, Richard More, soon found himself in the position of the sorcerer's apprentice -- wherever he looked for one item, ten more appeared. What he found illuminated not only More's own life but painted a clear and satisfying picture of the way the First Comers, Saints and Strangers alike, set off for the new land, suffered the voyage on the Mayflower, and put down their roots to thrive on our continent's northeastern shore. From the story, More emerges as a man of questionable morals, much enterprise, and a good deal of old-fashioned pluck, a combination that could get him into trouble -- and often did. He lived to father several children, to see -- near the end of his life -- a friend executed as a witch in Salem, and to be read out of the church for unseemly behavior. Mayflower Bastard lets readers see history in a new light by turning an important episode into a personal experience.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Histories based on genealogy often suffer from tunnel vision. Lindsay commits the opposite offense in this tale of one Richard More, a Lindsay ancestor who sailed at age five to the Plymouth colony aboard the Mayflower. In using the story of "the Mayflower Bastard" (so-called because More was the illegitimate son of landed gentry) as a lens through which to view early New England history, Lindsay has created a sprawling tale that exhausts the reader's patience as a cast of thousands parades through dozens of familiar scenes most extensively treated elsewhere. Lindsay's strategy is understandable. Little documentation on More, a Salem seafarer and tavern keeper, has survived; even his date of death is unknown. In the hands of a deft writer, the resulting fictionalization and speculation can work brilliantly, but this author is, at best, workmanlike. Lindsay, whose previous books explore inventors and inventions, also falters when choosing a narrative voice. At several points, he addresses a mysterious "you" apparently the accuser who had the elderly More cast out of the church for "lasciviousness." In other places Lindsay lapses into the first person. One of those asides is a gross sexual escapade Lindsay shared with a sailor friend, which the author includes to prove that sailors then and now did not share the moral code of the God-fearing Puritans. Aside from questionable historicity of such a comparison, no reader picking up a book about this nation's origins should be exposed to such a gratuitously offensive interjection. Still, some Mayflower buffs may want this volulme. (Nov. 13) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Lindsay, author of three books about the history of inventions and inventors, unspools the life of Richard More, an obscure and distant ancestor, and his role as one of the members of the early Massachusetts Puritan settlement. More sailed as an infant on the Mayflower in 1620 and lived through the infamous Salem witch trials of the 1690s. Lindsay set out not to trace his genealogical ties to More but to try to describe the remarkable aspects of this virtually unknown man. Despite his prodigious research, mostly in public records of the colony and complemented by secondary research from historians, Lindsay has had to rely much on supposition to paste his story together. Context is also problematic: Lindsay fails to suggest much of the importance of More's story for a broader analysis, in spite of his obvious awareness of contemporary historical research on Puritan society. Lindsay prefers to personalize his story, often using the first and second person in his writing to demonstrate that More is virtually his only focus. The book is interesting but not a scholarly treatment. For libraries with a special interest in the Pilgrims or the Plymouth colony. Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews