Anne Bradstreet in Context: The Life and Work of a Colonial American Poet

Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was published in 1650 with the support of her brother-in-law, making it the first book of poetry released by a permanent resident of colonial America. By the time the collection appeared in print, Bradstreet had immigrated to New England with her husband, given birth to seven of her eight children, and settled on her fifth and final homestead. Meanwhile, her father, husband, brothers, and brothers-in-law held various positions within the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, giving Bradstreet access to a network of influential Puritan leaders.

This study of Bradstreet explores the literary, religious, political, social, and familial contexts of colonial America that shaped her life and work. Bradstreet embraced her identity as a poet of her time, drawing inspiration from earlier writers as well as her contemporaries, who valued exploring themes of love, faith, loss, and mortality while maintaining a common set of stylistic conventions. Given the scarcity of recent scholarship on Bradstreet, this book is designed as a versatile resource--a blend of biography, literary analysis, history, genealogy, reference, and textbook-- that situates Bradstreet's poetry within the greater context of the seventeenth century.