Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet [Hardcover]

Charlotte Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2005

Though her work is a staple of anthologies of American poetry, Anne Bradstreet has never before been the subject of an accessible, full-scale biography for a general audience. Anne Bradstreet is known for her poem, "To My Dear and Loving Husband," among others, and through John Berryman's "Homage to Mistress Bradstreet." With her first collection, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, she became the first published poet, male or female, of the New World. Many New England towns were founded and settled by Anne Bradstreet's family or their close associates--characters who appear in these pages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Anne Bradstreet (1612?-1672) published her first book of poetry, The Tenth Muse, in 1650, she called it the "ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain." Yet, as poet Gordon (Two Girls on a Raft) demonstrates in this plodding and unilluminating biography, Bradstreet uttered those words more out of self-defense than regret. From her adolescence to the publication of her book, the Puritan poet viewed her work as a vocation that enabled her to worship God in vivid homespun images and to express sometimes complex theological ideas in plain language. Gordon depicts Bradstreet as a woman of her time, required to submit to her father and husband in religious and social matters. Gordon demonstrates that Bradstreet nevertheless benefited from the privileges of a literary education. Her family's social and religious circle included the most important figures of the early 17th century, from John Winthrop to Roger Williams. While her book was very popular at its publication, Bradstreet's reputation waned after the Civil War, to be recovered in the 20th century by her influence on poets such as Anne Sexton and John Berryman. Regrettably, Gordon's wearisome focus on the well-known facts of Bradstreet's upbringing leaves little room for a significant exploration of her poetic life and works. 8 pages of b&w illus. not seen by PW.
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From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–The early days of colonial New England come to life in this biography. Bradstreet was born in England in 1612, into a prominent Puritan family. Her father taught her to read, write, and compose poetry, unusual activities for a female of those times. In 1630, she and her new husband, her parents, and her siblings made the dangerous journey along with more than 300 others to what is now Massachusetts. Gordon portrays his subject as a complex personality–a dedicated, hardworking mother of eight and loving wife as well as a talented, prolific poet. While her poems dwell mostly on the godliness of the mundane, some of her later work reveals a rebellious spirit, a mind of her own. She wrote in praise of women, such as the warrior queen Elizabeth, an example of the glory of England. Bradstreet's story unfolds against the backdrop of the settling of the New England frontier and the English Civil War. The author uses conjecture when she writes about the poet's thoughts and reactions, but the historical events on both sides of the Atlantic are well researched and lushly portrayed. Readers will enjoy learning about this fascinating and courageous woman whose ideas helped shape this country.–Susanne Bardelson, Kitsap Regional Library, WA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (March 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316169048
• ISBN-13: 978-0316169042
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charlotte Gordon has written two books of poetry (When the Grateful Dead Came to St. Louis and Two Girls on a Raft), a biography of the 17th century poet, Anne Bradstreet (Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet, Little, Brown, 2005), and a non-fiction retelling of the famous biblical story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar (The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths Little Brown, 2009). An award winning author and speaker, she is a graduate of Harvard and Boston Universities and has been featured on NPR's "Weekend Edition," CBC's "The Current" as well as many other radio and television programs. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Another Misleading Puritan Book, July 24, 2008

By 

Auntie Beck "Auntie Beck" (NC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet (Hardcover)

The other reviews are correct in that this is an engaging biography, but the condenscension the the Puritans are treated with made me give up reading it in frustration. Today's stereotypes of men in particular, and Puritans in general are all over this book and it is a shame. While the author expresses appreciation for what people like Anne Bradstreet accomplished, she seems to also completely miss the point with statements like, "Anne may have been one of the few to hope that she would not be on this first exploratory mission ashore. However, it soon became clear that her father expected her, her mother, and her three younger sisters to climb down into the tiny skiff that lay tossing up and down in the waves. None of them could swim. But in Anne's world, a good daughter was, by definition, someone who obeyed her parents without question, and so she had little choice but to sweep her sisters along and guide them over the rails of the ship." How else were they supposed to get off the ship?? And conditions being what they were during sea travel in that time, she was probably only too thankful to be among the first to go ashore! Two pages later we are subjected to this, "New England was far from being the 'empty' land that the English proclaimed it to be in order to assert their rights. In fact, this "desert," as the Puritans called it, had been cleared for centuries by the Massachusetts, the tribe that dominated the bay region." "Desert" is a word used in the Bible to denote a wilderness, which New England, however many Indians there were, certainly was to a group of people that had just left Europe with cities hundreds of years old all over it.
To give a broader and more balanced view of the Puritans I highly recommend two books, "The Valley of Vision" a wonderful collection of Puritan prayers that will make you wonder where all the arrogance went, and "The Puritans as They Really Were" by Leland Ryken which explains some of the perceived arrogance they are so often attributed with today. There were certainly arrogant and corrupt Puritans (Salem Witch Trials anybody?), but even there it may surprise people to learn that many of the leading Puritans of the day were absolutely appalled at what happened in Salem. All of this to say, it is exasperating to read another book towing the academic party line on the Puritans combined with little cultural and historical context, and I don't recommend it.
Rebekah

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good biography of America's first female poet, December 3, 2005

By 

Herschel Greenberg (Chino, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet (Hardcover)

After working on a detailed project about Anne Bradstreet's poetry and prose (I argued whether or not she should be considered as only a Puritan poet) for my Master's class, I feel I have a good understanding of her life and work. Charlotte Gordon's book offers a refreshing biography on Bradstreet. It reads more like a story rather than a fact by fact accounting of Bradstreet's life. As such, it covers Bradstreet's life starting in England and ending in Andover in the New World. This makes the book accessible to nearly any reader interested in Bradstreet's life. The bibliography at the end of the book is fantastic - anyone doing research on Bradstreet will find what they are looking for here. Clearly, Gordon did a ton of research before writing the book.

However, the book includes only small amounts of Bradstreet's poetry and prose - that material which supports Gordon's topic. I recommend having Bradstreet's original material next to you in order to read the full references, or read Bradstreet's work first, then her biography. In addition, the other problem I had with Gordon book is that several of the scenes about the hardships of life in the New World seem to be a combination of stories about that time. In other words, we dont really know what happened during Bradstreet's childbirths. But we do know what women experienced in the 1630's. Several of these sections felt as if they were conveying the hardships of people in general rather than an actual biography of Anne Bradstreet. That is why I felt this was a story about Bradstreet. Also, I would have liked to see an actual timeline of events in Bradstreet's life for quick and easy reference.

Overall, if anyone is interested in Bradstreet's life and what she dealt with in the New World, I would recommend this book. There are better books out there that are more biographical and do a better job describing Bradstreet's poetry and prose (look for a book by Josephine Piercy). But if you want to read the story of Bradstreet's life, then this book does a good job at conveying the ups and downs of Puritan life in the New World.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Adventure in Early America, March 17, 2005

By 

Mark S. Konecky (Gloucester, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet (Hardcover)

This wonderful literary biography is an important contribution to the history of American literature and thought. Anne Bradstreet, a poet whose work I was only slightly familiar with, emerges as a vital, passionate, brave, and yet very human woman in this lively and well written biography. The biography reads like a novel as the author,Charlote Gordon,includes vivid images of early American life including hostile Indians, drunken sybarites, and scathingly judgemental Pilgrims. The reader learns about religious history, the Puritan movement, Anne's life events, the trials and tribulations she faced as a powerfully faithful and spiritual woman in England, the struggles and joys she faced as a wife and mother raising a family in primitive conditions in some of the first settlements in the New World. The biography is constructed with superb and lively scholarship. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is that Gordon, a poet herself, discovers Miss Bradstreet's inner feelings and thoughts by interpreting Anne's poetry. The reader gets to follow Anne's private world though Gordon's inciteful commentary. A must read for anyone interested in poetry, early American history, and adventure.