Thursday, February 11, 2010
The Search for Anne Bradstreet
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5766
Poetry Landmark: The Search for Anne Bradstreet in Essex County, MA
Though there are numerous documents and portraits of her husband and father, Anne Bradstreet left only her poems behind. There is no tattered journal, no marble bust, not even a headstone. Yet, the search for locations relating to one of America's first poets is a sacred one, tracing not only the beginnings of American poetry, but the history of the country itself.
Born as Anne Dudley in 1612 to a well-educated family in England, she married Simon Bradstreet at age 16. Two years later, in 1630, Bradstreet immigrated to New England with her husband and family on the Arabella, in one of the earliest groups of Puritans. They initially lived in Salem and Cambridge, and then settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Her husband and father quickly became involved in the local governance of the Boston settlement--Dudley became Deputy-Governor and Bradstreet took the role of Chief-Administrator.
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Bradstreet's work was secretly compiled by her brother-in-law and published in England in 1650 under the title The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America. She was distressed by the publication, and updated it a few years later, with a poem of apology for its original publication: "The Author to Her Book." Bradstreet let no more of her work be published; only circulating later work among friends and family. Her most highly regarded work was written later in life, and published posthumously.
{Please go to this site and read the complete story about her, and see a few other works.}(G)
Poetry Landmark: The Search for Anne Bradstreet in Essex County, MA
Though there are numerous documents and portraits of her husband and father, Anne Bradstreet left only her poems behind. There is no tattered journal, no marble bust, not even a headstone. Yet, the search for locations relating to one of America's first poets is a sacred one, tracing not only the beginnings of American poetry, but the history of the country itself.
Born as Anne Dudley in 1612 to a well-educated family in England, she married Simon Bradstreet at age 16. Two years later, in 1630, Bradstreet immigrated to New England with her husband and family on the Arabella, in one of the earliest groups of Puritans. They initially lived in Salem and Cambridge, and then settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Her husband and father quickly became involved in the local governance of the Boston settlement--Dudley became Deputy-Governor and Bradstreet took the role of Chief-Administrator.
**********
Bradstreet's work was secretly compiled by her brother-in-law and published in England in 1650 under the title The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America. She was distressed by the publication, and updated it a few years later, with a poem of apology for its original publication: "The Author to Her Book." Bradstreet let no more of her work be published; only circulating later work among friends and family. Her most highly regarded work was written later in life, and published posthumously.
{Please go to this site and read the complete story about her, and see a few other works.}(G)
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