Seldom does a writer begin more than one literary tradition, but Anne Bradstreet, Puritan and poet, begins two. She is the first poet and the first woman writer in the British colonies to be published. When her first volume of poetry

the Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

(1650) was published, Bradstreet’s poetry was praised on both continents. This was also the case after the posthumous publication of the second volume,

Several Poems

(1678). Although Bradstreet was not much read in the two succeeding centuries, her poetry was rediscovered in the 1960s as part of the new focus on women’s writing and continues to garner much critical attention. The breadth of Bradstreet’s scholarship, the depth of her humor, the mastery of her poetic lines, and the intensity of her passion…

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Citation: De Grave, Kathleen. "Anne Bradstreet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 May 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=539, accessed 19 March 2024.]

539 Anne Bradstreet 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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