One of the first
American poets. Born in
Northamptonshire,
England around
1612 or
1613 as Anne Dudley, she married Simon Bradstreet, a former assistant to her father, in
1628 and when she was
18 they moved to the colonies. The couple had a happy
marriage and eight
children, and Anne wrote
poetry without really intending to publish. Her
brother-in-law gathered up her
poems and took them to England, publishing then in
1650 as "The Tenth
Muse, Lately Sprung Up In
America" -- the first book of poems by an American, and the first American book of a
woman's writing. She died in
1672 and an edition was published after her death with a few more poems, and corrections supposedly by Anne.
She was a devout Puritan and wrote long religious poems, but the shorter ones on more everyday subjects interest modern readers more. They are fascinating for their use of metaphor and their window into the thoughts of the colonists.
"Before the Birth of One of Her Children" tells her husband what to do if she dies in childbirth. "A Dialogue Between Old England and New" is an interesting view of the current issues of the day. "The Author To Her Book" describes her poetry as a bastard child not worthy of attention, though other poems of hers say she as a woman has as much right to write as a man does. (unpimp notes, "I disagree. I think the poem is describing when her brother-in-law took her poems for publishing to England. She was dissatisfied with them, obviously, and they were not ready for print. 'Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true, Who thee abroad, exposed to public view.'" English professors make a living out of such different interpretations of the same work.)