Anne Bradstreet

-Portrait of Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet (ca. 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the first American female writer as well as the first American female poet to have her works published.

Early Life in England

Bradstreet was born as Anne Dudley in Northampton, England. She was the daughter of Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Dudley, Earl of Lincoln, and she grew up in cultured circumstances. At the age of sixteen she married Simon Bradstreet. Both Anne's father and Anne's husband were later to serve as governors of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Anne and Simon, along with Anne's parents, immigrated to America aboard the Arbella during the "Great Migration" in 1630.

In 1647 Bradstreet's brother-in-law, Rev. John Woodbridge, sailed to England, carrying her manuscript of poetry (possibly without her knowledge). Anne's first work was published in London as "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America". The purpose of the publication appears to have been an attempt by devout Puritan men (i.e. Thomas Dudley, Simon Bradstreet, John Woodbridge) to show that a godly and educated woman could elevate the position held by a wife and mother, without necessarily placing her in competition with men. Bradstreet was an unusually well-educated woman for her time, which allowed her to express herself through writing. She wrote about politics, history, medicine, and theology. Her personal library of books was said to have numbered over 800, many of which were destroyed when her home burned down on July 10, 1666. This event itself inspired a poem entitled "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666", wherein Bradstreet strives to reconcile her faith in an all-powerful God with the tragedy that has befallen her.

Life in the American Colonies

Much of Bradstreet's poetry is based on observation of the world around her, focusing heavily on domestic and religious themes. Long considered primarily of historical interest, she won critical acceptance in the 20th century as a writer of enduring verse, particularly for her sequence of religious poems "Contemplations", which was written for her family and not published until the mid-19th century. Bradstreet's work was deeply influenced by poet Guillaume du Bartas, who was favoured by 17th-century readers.

Bradstreet died in 1672, in Andover, Massachusetts. While the precise location of her grave is uncertain, she may have been buried next to her husband in "the Old Burying Point" in Salem, Massachusetts, or in "the Old Burying Ground" on Academy Road in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Posthumous and Present Day

In 1678 her self-revised "Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning" was posthumously published in America, including one of her most famous poems, To My Dear and Loving Husband (.)

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay.

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persevere

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Descendants

Simon and Anne Bradstreet number several illustrious Americans among their progeny, many which have been involved in public service, such as: Herbert Hoover, the nation's 31st president, Oliver Wendall Homes, Jr. Supreme Court Justice ( ), William Ellery, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, representing Rhode Island, Richard Henry Dana, an abolitionist and a founder of the Anti-Slavery Free party in 1848. As of this writing, two of their descendants hold public office: Senator John Kerry is the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. As the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, he was defeated in the 2004 presidential election by the Republican incumbent, President George W. Bush. David Souter (born September 17, 1939) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1990. He filled the seat vacated by William J. Brennan.

Descendants of Simon Bradstreet and Anne, daughter of Thomas Dudley:

• Herbert Hoover
• Wendell Phillip
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• William Ellery
• William Ellery Channing
• Francis Dana
• Richard Henry Dana, Sr.
• Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
• Elisha Williams
• Robert Edwin Seamount
• John Kerry
• David Souter

Works

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Anne Bradstreet

• Before the Birth of One of Her Children
• A Dialogue between Old England and New
• A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment
• Another
• Another (II)
• For Deliverance From A Fever
• 'In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess, Queen Elizabeth
• In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659
• The Author to Her Book
• The Flesh and the Spirit
• The Four Ages of Man
• The Prologue
• To Her Father with Some Verses
• To My Dear and Loving Husband
• Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno 1632 Aetatis Suae, 19
• Upon Some Distemper of Body
• Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 18th, 1666

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Gordon, Charlotte, Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet. Little, Brown and Company (2005) ISBN 0316169048
• Wilson, Douglas and Grant, George (ed.), Beyond Stateliest Marble: The Passionate Femininity of Anne Bradstreet, Highland Books (2001) ISBN 1581821646
• Nichols, Heidi L., Anne Bradstreet: A Guided Tour of the Life And Thought of a Puritan Poet, P & R Publishing (2006) ISBN 0875526101
• "Anne (Dudley) Bradstreet." Feminist Writers. St. James Press, 1996. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006. https://galenet.galegroup.com.access-proxy.sno-isle.org. Retrieved December 21, 2006.
• "Anne Dudley Bradstreet." Encyclopedia World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006. http://galenet.galegroup.com.access-proxy.sno-isle.org. Retrieved December 21, 2006.
• "Anne Bradstreet." Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography: Colonization to American Renaissance, 1640-1865. Gale Research, 1988. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomason Gale. 2006. http://galenet.galegroup.com.access-proxy.sno-isle.org. Retrieved December 21, 2006.

Notes

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