Anne Bradstreet (circa 1612 - 1672) Biography

Born in Northampton, England, Anne Bradstreet was one of the first poets to write English verse in the American colonies. She won critical acceptance in the 20th century, particularly for her sequence of religious poems, "Contemplations," written for her family and not published until the mid-19th century.

Anne Dudley married Simon Bradstreet when she was 15 or 16 years old, and two years later they sailed with other Puritans to settle on Massachusetts Bay. She wrote her poems while rearing eight children. Her brother-in-law, without her knowledge, took her poems to England, where they were published as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America in 1650. Because she did not know her poems were going to be published, Anne could not make any corrections or changes.The first American edition of this work was published in revision and expanded form as Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning in 1678, six years after her death. This edition contains "The Author to Her Book" one of her best known poems.

Her later poems, written for her family, show her spiritual growth as she came fully to accept the Puritan creed. She also wrote more personal poems about such subjects as her thoughts before childbirth and her response to the death of a grandchild. Her prose works include 'Meditations," a collections of succinct and pithy aphorisms.

I have a more extensive biography given in class by a former student at the class index. It includes some other websites at the bottom of that page. If you have questions or comments, email

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