Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet (1612 - 1672)

Anne Bradstreet (ca. 1612 – September 16, 1672), colonial American woman, was the first published American woman writer.

Bradstreet was born in Northampton, England. She was the daughter of Governor Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke Dudley. At the age of 16, she married Simon Bradstreet, an employee and future governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Anne and Simon emigrated to America along with Anne’s parents in 1630 aboard the Arabella. Bradstreet wrote poetry of domestic and religious themes, and in 1650, she published The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America which appeared in London. In 1678, she (posthumously) published Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning in America. She died in Andover, MA, and is buried in the Old Burying Point in Salem, MA.