Anne Bradstreet Biography

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

(drawing from the 19th C)

v     The first published poet in the New World (America). Also the first female published writer in America.

v     Born in England.

v     She was taught by her father, Thomas Dudley, who was steward (head servant) to the Earl of Lincoln (a nobleman).

v     She married Simon Bradstreet when she was 16.

v     Both her father and husband became governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They travelled to America in 1630. Anne was 18. Simon and Thomas also helped found Harvard University.

v     She wrote her first poem at 19, after recovering from small pox (kiahne).

v     Anne and her husband moved around, helping found Charlestown, Boston, Cambridge, Ipswich, and North Andover.

v     She and Simon had 8 children.

v     Anne poems were brought to England by her brother-in-law, Reverend John Woodbridge, who published them without her knowledge or consent in a book titled: The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up into America, by a Gentlewoman in such Parts.

v     According to Woodbridge, Anne wanted her poems to remain unpublished:

“I have presumed to bring to publick view what she resolved should never in such as manner see the Sun.”

v     He did it to show the English that an educated woman could make a better wife and mother. While the book was popular, the sentiment was not.