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Reading

Do you love to cosy up with a coffee and a book about the Mayflower as much as we do?

Check out some of our titles here for further inspiration:

Non-fiction

This list is a collection of Mayflower book titles - or closely related topics - from members of the SMD(E) Board.  Initials at the end of some entries refer to the contributor. Listings are alphabetical by author: ​ ATHERTON, Kathy and HORNE, Susannah    THE WEAVER, THE SHOEMAKER AND THE MOTHER OF A NATION     The Cockerel Press  2019  ISBN 978 1 909871 18 2    Available through Dorking Museum;  the story of the six Dorking residents who travelled on the Mayflower to the New World. -DH BALLAM, Anthea and Julia     MAYFLOWER The Voyage that Changed the World   O Books  2003   ISBN 1 903816 38 6 ​​BANGS, Jeremy Dupertuis    INDIAN DEEDS: Land Transactions in Plymouth Colony, 1620-1691   New England Historic Genealogical Society 2002 ISBN 978-880821391. Transcriptions of early deeds between the Plymouth Colony and Native Americans, clarifying seventeenth century land ownership.  -JW ​BANGS, Jeremy Dupertuis   INTELLECTUAL BAGGAGE, The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, Ideas of Influence LuLu Press  2010   A catalogue of books the Pilgrims owned and read, and scholarly essays that illustrate the history of the Pilgrims, their religion, their culture, and their lives with books.  -JW ​BANGS, Jeremy Dupertuis  PILGRIM EDWARD WINSLOW: New England’s First International Diplomat: a Documentary. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004 BANGS, Jeremy   STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS, TRAVELLERS AND SOJOURNERS - Leiden and the Foundations of Plymouth Plantation. General Society of Mayflower Descendants   2009    ISBN 978-0930270452. An important, massive volume and comprehensive modern academic work that re assesses the Pilgrim story, particularly during their stay in Leiden, based on meticulous research of original archival material in the Netherlands, England and the United States.  -JW BEALE, David     THE MAYFLOWER PILGRIMS Roots of Puritan, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Baptist Heritage  Ambassador-Emerald International   2000 ISBN 1 889893 51 X    Well laid-out for use as a reference book as well as end-to-end reading. -DH ​BRADFORD, William     OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION  Renaissance Classics  2012   ISBN 9781484041833    A 'must have' for any serious Mayflower collection. -DH BUNKER, Nick     MAKING HASTE FROM BABYLON  The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World- A New History Pimlico  2010  ISBN 9781845951184 CONLEY, Patrick T.   RHODE ISLAND'S FOUNDERS: From Settlement to Statehood   The History Press, 2010/rev. 2024, ISBN: 978-1596297395/978-1467150552.  Roger Williams and other religious exiles migrate from neighbouring colonies to found the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and lay the groundwork for America's policy of religious freedom.  -JW FALCONER, Jonathan      HAYNES:  MAYFLOWER The Pilgrim fathers' historic voyage of 1620 ENTHUSIASTS' MANUAL  Haynes  2020  ISBN 978 1 78521 647 3      Yes, a Haynes Manual for the Mayflower!  -DH FEASEY, J. Eaton   THE MAYFLOWER PIONEERS  The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers  The Sidney Press, Bedford (for The Sunday School Union, London)  No date or ISBN, just an old collector's item.  Price  1/6  Back cover mentions Mayflower celebrations, so perhaps dates from about 1920? -DH GILL, Crispin    MAYFLOWER REMEMBERED  A History of the Plymouth Pilgrims  David & Charles 1970    7153 4726 8 (assumed to be ISBN or equivalent, but not marked as such). -DH HILTON, Christopher    MAYFLOWER  The Voyage That Changed the World  The History Press 2005   ISBN  978 0 7509 9430 9 JACKSON, Kevin     MAYFLOWER  The Voyage From Hell  TSB  2020  ISBN 978 1 916190 87 0 ​JOHNSON, Caleb     HERE SHALL I DIE ASHORE  Stephen Hopkins: castaway, Jamestown Survivor and Mayflower Pilgrim   Xlibris  2007  ISBN 978 1 4257 9633 4 KELLY,  Joseph    MAROONED  Bloomsbury, 2019   ISBN number 0-930270-45-2  About Jamestown but includes Stephen Hopkins.  -GG ​KING, Jonathan     THE MAYFLOWER MIRACLE  The Pilgrims' Own Story of the Founding of America   David & Charles 1987   ISBN 0 7153 9013 9 LEPORE, Jill   THE NAME OF WAR: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity Vintage Books   1998   ISBN: 0-375-70262-8      The bloodiest war in American history, in proportion to population, that erupted in 1675 between colonists and indigenous people in Southeastern New England.  -JW MACK, Jonathan   A STRANGER AMONG SAINTS  Stephen Hopkins  The Man Who Survived Jamestown and Saved Plymouth   Chicago Review Press 2020   ISBN 978 1 64160 090 3 ​McCULLOUGH, David  JOHN ADAMS    Simon & Schuster  2001   ISBN 978-0684813639    Pulitzer Prize winning historical narrative of John Adams- founding father, second President of the United States, and Mayflower descendant.  -JW ​MOURT'S RELATION  A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth 1622  Edition edited by Dwight B. Heath:  Applewood Books  1963 ISBN 0 918222 84 2    Another classic 'must-have'.  -DH O'BRIEN, Rita Cruise   THE MAYFLOWER  Myths, Truths and Legacies  Riverview Press 2020  ISBN  979 8 66566 155 1 PHILBRICK, Nathaniel   MAYFLOWER   A Voyage To War   Harper Perennial 2006  ISBN 978 0 00 715128 8 ​RAPPLEYE, Charles   SONS OF PROVIDENCE, the Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade and the American Revolution  Simon & Schuster   2006   ISBN 978-0743266871    An incisive study of John and Moses Brown, two of four brothers from the Providence banking, import/export and slave-trading family.  -JW SHORTO, Russell  THE ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD: the Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America   Doubleday  2004 ISBN 978-0385503495      Based on recently translated 17th century Dutch records of New Netherland, Shorto’s narrative brings to life a colony based on trade and tolerance, the first place in the New World where men and women of different races and creeds lived in relative harmony. A stark contrast to the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut Colonies.  -JW SOUTHWARK BOROUGH COUNCIL  THE MAYFLOWER AND PILGRIM STORY  Chapters from Rotherhithe and Southwark   Council of the London Borough of Southwark 1970   ISBN 0 905849 12 4  Another collector's item, this booklet comprehensively records the Mayflower story as seen from this part of the Thames.  -DH ​TAYLOR, Graham  THE MAYFLOWER IN BRITAIN  How an Icon was Made in London  Amberley 2020  ISBN 978 1 4456 9229 6 VOWELL, Sarah  THE WORDY SHIPMATES       Riverhead Books  2008   ISBN 9781594484001. Humorous social commentary on 400 years of America’s evolving Puritan identity.  -JW WHITTOCK, Martyn  MAYFLOWER LIVES  Pilgrims in a New World and the early American Experience  Pegasus Books 2019  ISBN 9781 16431 36080 ​WINSLOW, Edward  GOOD NEWS FROM NEW ENGLAND  A Scholarly Edition University of Massachusetts Press 2014, edited by Kelly Wisecup  ISBN  978 1 62534 082 5    Another one for the serious Mayflower enthusiast. -DH

Fiction

​GREGG, Frank M.   THE FOUNDING OF A NATION  Forgotten Books 2018, originally published 1915  ISBN  978 1 331 12501 3        This unusual old reprint tells the Mayflower story through the eyes of a fictional cavalier who escapes his life by sailing to the New World with the Founding Fathers.  An introduction by the author explains how and why he constructed the tale in this way. -DH LASKY, Kathryn    My Story  MAYFLOWER  The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, 1620  Scholastic 2003  ISBN 0 439 98115 8      A lovely story, written for younger readers, which tells the story of the Mayflower journey and early days of Plimouth, through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl. -DH RESS, Suzanne  THE TRIAL OF GOODY GILBERT  Suzanne Ress, 2012    ISBN 0615662269  (A fictional tale based on fact). Still on my list to read, this book was written by our late Deputy Governor, Suzanne Ress- GG ​REVELL, Phil    A SPURIOUS BROOD  Ascribe  2011   ISBN 978 0 9569626 0 7    A fictional story based on the true story of Katherine More, whose four children children sailed on the Mayflower.  The author attempts to fill in the gaps and speculates how this may have come about.  -DH

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