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Anne Bradstreet | |
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![]() Nineteenth century depiction of Anne Bradstreet by Edmund H. Garrett. No portrait made during her lifetime exists.[1] | |
Born | Anne Dudley March 8, 1612 Northampton, England |
Died | September 16, 1672 North Andover, Massachusetts | (aged 60)
Occupation | Poet |
Language | English |
Nationality | British |
Spouse | |
Children | 8: Samuel, Dorothy, Sarah, Simon, Hannah, Mercy, Dudley, John. |
Relatives | John Woodbridge(brother-in-law) |
Anne Bradstreet (née Dudley; March 8, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was among the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in American Literature and notable for her large corpus of poetry, as well as personal writings published posthumously.
Born to a wealthy Puritan family in Northampton, England, Bradstreet was a well-read scholar especially affected by the works of Du Bartas. She was married at sixteen, and her parents and young family migrated at the time of the founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. A mother of eight children and the wife and daughter of public officials in New England, Bradstreet wrote poetry in addition to her other duties.
Her early works are broadly considered derivative, but her later writings developed into her unique style of poetry which centers on her role as a mother, her struggles with the sufferings of life, and her Puritan faith. While her works were initially considered primarily of historical significance, she reached posthumous acclaim in the 20th century.[2] Her first collection, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, was widely read in America and England.