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Anne Dudley Bradstreet was born in Northampton, England, to Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke Dudley. She had a comfortable childhood at Tattershall Castle in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, as her father was the steward of the estates of Theophilus Clinton, the Puritan Earl of Lincoln. Encouraged by her father, she was taught by private tutors and learned a great deal due to extensive reading offered her by having access to the library in the manor, despite the fact that women of the time received little or no education.

In 1628, at age 16, she married Simon Bradstreet, who was a protege of the Earl's, her father's assistant, and nine years her senior. Two years later, in 1630, her family immigrated to the New World, as members of John Winthrop's party, on the flagship, Arabella. Her father and husband were both governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her family's position allowed Anne Bradstreet a dignified and honorable place in America, but not critical acceptance of her poetry.

A mother of eight and housewife, she was also America's first important poet. Her poems dealt with the hardships of life in the early settlements, the Puritan religion, and in subtle ways, the role of women in those times. Because she was a woman, her work was strongly criticized, and some believed that she stole the ideas for her writing from men. In her earlier works, Bradstreet wrote in the style of male authors that she admired. She was careful about expressing her true feelings, and this limited her abilities. She wrote for her own satisfaction, and shared her poetry with family and friends. Without her knowledge, her brother-in-law, Rev. John Woodbridge, took a manuscript of her poems to England with him and had them published in a book called, The Tenth Muse Lately sprung up in America... By a Gentlewoman in those parts, which Anne had dedicated to her father.Rev. Woodbridge wrote "By a Gentlewoman" in the title to stress that Anne Bradstreet was a virtuous Puritan who did not neglect her duties for her writing.

After seeing her own works in print, Anne Bradstreet gained confidence in her own ability that freed her of imitating other poets, despite the fact that the book was not well-received. She expressed her displeasure at the criticism in her work, "The Prologue." In many of her writings, Bradstreet is self-deprecating, perhaps in order for her poems to be more acceptable in that male-dominated world. However, a year after her book was published, Anne wrote, "In Honor of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory," which demonstrates the worth of women.

This was one of the poems in which she used her own writing style, and expressed her emotions, and as a result became a great writer. After this adjustment, she wrote several poems which distinguish her as a great English-American poet. She dedicated several of her works to her children. In their culture, marital love was expected to be somewhat repressed, in order that people's focus remain on God. This did not prevent Anne Bradstreet from writing love sonnets, one of them being the romantic poem, "To My Dear and Loving Husband." Despite her modesty, Bradstreet still managed to fluently express her emotions in her works, which is undoubtedly the reason for their being accepted into the world.

Anne Bradstreet died in 1672, and in 1678, after six years, a second volume of her book appeared. Found in her papers after her death, she had edited many of the poems originally found in the book, and enlarged the volume to include more of her writing. Although many of her yet unpublished poems were discovered after her passing, it is possible that much of her work was destroyed when her house burned in 1666, and was never known. It is also believed that there are no portraits of Anne Bradstreet in existence; and although she may be buried in North Andover, her final home, or in her father's tomb at Roxbury, Massachusetts, even her final resting place is unknown.

Biography by Alice
Submitted - unknown