Mistress Bradstreet by Charlotte Gordon
Monday, June 6th, 2005Reviewed by L.D.Y.
Hardcover, 337 pages, 2005
Rating: 9/10
Reason for Reading: I have a weakness for biographies about authors.
Synopsis: Mistress Bradstreet is a biography of Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan
that moved to America with her family at the age of eighteen, just a decade after the
Pilgrims first arrived in the early 17th century. Her experiences in the New World - marriage, starting a family, and trying to establish a Puritan community without
the corruptions that ran rampant in England - were the topics she focused on in her poetry. Through her bravery (women
were often punished for overstepping their boundaries and not showing the submission that
was expected of proper religious women - including venturing it’s the ‘man’s world’ of
writing) and her talent, Anne Bradstreet strove through a number of obstacles to become America’s first established poet.








