Product Description

Anne Bradstreet was one of our earliest feminists and the first true poet in the American colonies.This collection of her extant poetry and prose, scrupulously edited by Jeannine Hensley, has long been the standard edition of Bradstreet's work.Hensley's introduction sketches the poet's life, and Adrienne Rich's foreword offers a sensitive critique of Bradstreet as a person and as a writer. The John Harvard Library edition includes a chronology of Bradstreet's life and an updated bibliography.

Customer Reviews (1)

Early American Poetics From a Female Perspective
Anne Bradstreet is generally considered to be the first serious poet of the American colonies and one of its first female writers.Born in England in 1612, Bradstreet was raised and educated in a comfortable English home before traveling to the New World when she was 16 to seek religious freedom: she and her family were Puritans.Her poems, written in New England and distributed among family members, were taken to England in 1650 for publication without Bradstreet's knowledge.A second edition, with additional poems (and Bradstreet's blessing) was published during her lifetime and then a third, with still additional poems, was published posthumously. Finally, a fourth edition was published in 1867 which included previously unpublished Bradstreet writings known as the Andover Collection.

The new John Harvard Library edition, a reprint of its definitive 1967 collection, includes all previously published material as well as an updated bibliography and a Bradstreet chronology.

Understanding the initial poems in this collection is greatly enhanced by the foreword and introduction (by Adrienne Rich and Jeanine Hensley, respectively) which explain that Bradstreet was trying to keep her English education alive in the colonial wilderness by writing extremely long, erudite poems having little to do with her surroundings: "The Four Elements," "Of the Four Humours," "Of the Four Ages," "Of the Four Seasons," and "The Four Monarchies."

The first edition also included a fairly lengthy poem praising, in great detail, the reign of Queen Elizabeth while it simultaneously questions the unfairness of gender issues:

. . . Now say, have women worth?Or have they none?
Or had they some, but with our Queen is gone?
Nay masculines, you have thus taxed us long,
But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong.
Let such as say our sex if void of reason,
Know `tis a slander now but once was treason.

Apart from several fascinating poems such as this one, many of Bradstreet's early works, appreciated at the time of their publication, suffer a bit of a disconnect from 21st century readers, especially the lengthy ones previously mentioned.But these writings were apparently essential preparations for the more strikingly personal poems that followed, those that are most often anthologized and known in this century by students of early American literature, such as "To My Dear and Loving Husband," a poem originally published in the third collection:

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold . . .

Another poem from this collection called "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" reveals Bradstreet's fear of death only because it means parting from her loved ones:

. . . If any worth of virtue were in me,
Let that live freshly in they memory
And when thou feel'st no grief, as I no harms,
Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms.
And when thy loss shall be repaid with gains
Look to my little babes, my dear remains.
And if thou love thyself, or loved'st me,
These O protect from step-dame's injury . . .

"In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet" shows the tension Bradstreet often felt between her love for life and her Christian beliefs:

. . . More fool then I to look on that was lent
As if mine own, when thus impermanent.
Farewell dear child, thou ne'er shall come to me,
But yet a while, and I shall go to thee;
Mean time my throbbling heart's cheered up with this:
Thou with thy Saviour art in endless bliss.

Bradstreet's theological beliefs are further documented in the Andover Collection (the last section of the current edition) and contains various poems and prose, the first of which, "To My Dear Children," documents Bradstreet's spiritual odyssey meant to be read after she had died: "The method I will observe shall be this: I will begin with God's dealing with me from my childhood to this day."

"The Words of Anne Bradstreet" places all of Bradstreet's writings clearly within her biographical framework and as such is the definitive tool for understanding this important colonial poet.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Anne Bradstreet Review
Excellent service. My order came so quickly I was surprised.It was securely packaged and in great shape.I'll purchase from this vendor again.GREAT

Just What I Was Looking For!
Hiedi Nichols is an apt tour guide, not only of Anne Bradstreet, but also of the basics of her Puritan background.This book was exactly what I was looking for.Ms. Nichols supplies a breif, readable, and well-informed biography of Anne Bradstreet.She also supplies a view of English and New England Puritanism.She also includes selections of Anne's poetry with brief introductory remarks.Finally, a word must be said regarding Ms. Nichol's provision of illustrations and biblographical notes.Many digital reproductions of portraits and title pages are interspersed.What else would you expect from a guided tour?
All in all, this is a job well done.Nichols proves that she is well aware of the feminists who have tried to take Anne captive and interpret her according to their own agenda, but she doesn't give in to such schemes.I heartily give this book a five-star rating. ... Read more

Product Description

Anne Bradstreet, the first true poet in the American colonies, wrote at a time and in a place where any literary creation was rare and difficult and that of a woman more unusual still. Born in England and brought up in the household of the Earl of Lincoln where her father, Thomas Dudley, was steward, Anne Bradstreet sailed to Massachusetts Bay in 1630, shortly after her marriage at sixteen to Simon Bradstreet. For the next forty years she lived in the New England wilderness, raising a family of eight, combating sickness and hardship, and writing the verse that made her, as the poet Adrienne Rich says in her Foreword to this edition, "the first non-didactic American poet, the first to give an embodiment to American nature, the first in whom personal intention appears to precede Puritan dogma as an impulse to verse."

All Anne Bradstreet's extant poetry and prose is published here with modernized spelling and punctuation. This volume reproduces the second edition of Several Poems, brought out in Boston in 1678, as well as the contents of a manuscript first printed in 1857. Adrienne Rich's Foreword offers a sensitive and illuminating critique of Anne Bradstreet both as a person and as a writer, and the Introduction, scholarly notes, and appendices by Jeannine Hensley make this an authoritative edition.

Adrienne Rich observes, "Intellectual intensity among women gave cause for uneasiness" at this period--a fact borne out by the lines in the Prologue to the early poems: "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue/ Who says my hand a needle better fits." The broad scope of Anne Bradstreet's own learning and reading is most evident in the literary and historical allusions of The Tenth Muse, the first edition of her poems, published in London in 1650. Her later verse and her prose meditations strike a more personal note, however, and reveal both a passionate religious sense and a depth of feeling for her husband, her children, the fears and disappointments she constantly faced, and the consoling power of nature. Imbued with a Puritan striving to turn all events to the glory of God, these writings bear the mark of a woman of strong spirit, charm, delicacy, and wit: in their intimate and meditative quality Anne Bradstreet is established as a poet of sensibility and permanent stature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Favorite Poet
I have been teaching American history and literature for over 40 years. Anne Bradstreet has always been my favorite American poet. As many of my ancestors were Puritans, she speaks to me in a personal way, and reminds me that they were not cold-hearted, unfeeling people.

Bradstreet's Complete Works are Worth Reading
Anne Bradstreet, perhaps America's earliest poet, lived in an uncertain time in the new world.She grew up a Puritan and lived in a Puritan society in the New World.However, I believe Bradstreet should be considered as more than just a Puritan poet.I just finished a paper for my Masters class debating whether or not Bradstreet is a Puritan poet, and I concluded that she is in fact much more.Every quote I used in my project came from Hensley's book, since it is one of the few that actually contains everything published by Bradstreet.

Bradstreet's poetry and prose are accessible to anyone. That is, her poetry is easy to read and understand.I encourage people interested in Bradstreet's life and the life of people during the early times of American history to read her collection of work.Then, I encourage the reader to judge for themselves how much we should consider Bradstreet to be considered only as a Puritan author.In the poems where she address her husband and children, she is circumventing the traditional Puritan belief that love and marriage end after death.Bradstreet also had to fight the male critics and authorities during her time, and her poetry reflects this conflict. For example, she degrades her own work in comparison to male poets, but by doing so, Bradstreet is masking her true intentions by flattering the very people she is insulting.This further proves her skills as a female poet writing in a Puritan time period.

My goal is to read all of Bradstreet's poetry and prose from beginning to end.I think Bradstreet is under represented in schools, but I hope books like this bring her back to the forefront of early American Literature.I encourage people to buy this book, read her words, and try to imagine writing in such a dangerous time period.Bradstreet captures the fear and danger of living on the New Frontier, and the conflict each person would have faced between their faith in God and the reality they experienced.I hope others will enjoy Bradstreet's poetry as much as I did.

My family
I started reading Anne Bradstreet because I'm directly descended from her, but I kept reading because of her intelligent and unique voice.

America's first great poet
How many people know that America's first great poet was a woman? Reading this collection of her works leaves one in little doubt about her greatness. The consummate artistry with which she expresses her inmostfeelings pulls her to us, across the divide of three and a half centuries.Bradstreet's poetry shows that those Puritans, with their funny clothes,intolerant religion, and witch hunts experienced love, longing, and losswith much the same emotions that we do. Very highly recommended.

Anne Bradstreet's voice reaches across the centuries.
Three hundred and fifty years later, Anne Bradstreet still touches the heart and soul of her readers. On the Burning of My House still reminds us of where our priorities need to be, and on the importance of family. As a10th great granddaughter, I realize that her works were written not onlyfor herself and for her peers, but for the thousands of descendants in theworld today. That is what makes truly great literature. ... Read more

Product Description
From America’s first poet—a splendid selection of poems encompassing everything from lyric verses addressed to her husband and children to somber epitaphs on the deaths of her mother, father, and grandchildren. Poems grouped according to category (love, home life, religious meditations, dialogues, and lamentations). Of great literary value, these works also shed light on the cares, concerns and roles of colonial women.
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Customer Reviews (3)

what's not to love?
Bradstreet's earlier poems skillfully rework the constraints of a female author in seventeenth-century New England. Her later domestic poems are tender, artful if less showy, at times even sensual. The critical tide has turned away from the later work for which she is better known (and which the Dover edition incongruously puts up front). But it's interesting how we grow, as readers and as people, with Bradstreet. The Harvard edition is better annotated, a nice edition is available online, but this Dover thrift book works just fine.

Clever and Modest Protest Poem
Looking at what I think is the best Bradstreet poem, she seems a clever writer that had a good understanding of how to speak in her Puritan society and how to address inequality without backlash.

The tone of Anne Bradstreet's poem, titled, "Prologue," begins with an epic feeling, but every third line of the first two sestets, the narrator curtsies and takes a humble step back.At first, the narrator's humble pleas seem coquettish, as she says that "Wars...Captains, and...Kings" (1) are too "superior things" (3) for her to write about.However, by beginning the poem in this way, she proves that her "mean Pen" (3) and "obscure lines" (6) can do exactly the things that the Pens of male poets can.

In the second stanza, the narrator continues to separate her abilities from such greats as "Bartas," (11) and continues deprecating her "simple" skills (12).The plugs against her ability begin to show signs of irony, as her protests against the status quo increase in volume and regularity.

By the fifth sestet, her tone transforms into one of tasteful opposition against the norms of society.She does not accept her place in the home quietly: "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue / Who says my hand a needle better fits" (25-26). In addition, she concludes the stanza with the futility of penning poems for an audience that scorns women's abilities: "If what I do prove well, it won't advance, /They'll say it's stolen, or else it was by chance" (29-30).The protest speaks to us of the era and the world of the narrator.

As the protest seems to rise in the middle, it curtails in the end.She once again subordinates herself - "Men can do best, and Women know it well" (40).However, as she does so, she continues to make her plea for equal rights, asking that women be recognized for their merits in poetry as well.In the final sestet, in high poetry, the narrator cuts loose with grand imagery, yet she remains humble, creating heavy irony again.The implication of the last two lines is that her "unrefined ore," her poetry, will make men's superior "glist'ring gold" poems all the more excellent (47-48), as surely a woman cannot outdo the men.It's a challenge.

Bradstreet manages to do four separate things in this poem: she flatters men's egos, she pokes fun at patriarchy, she makes a logical argument for equal rights, and she writes a vivid poem.It all gets done at the same time, and in so polite a way that she doesn't come across as subversive or irritated at all.

One of the great foremothers of American literature
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), a poet of colonial North America, is a pioneering figure in the history of literature of this continent. "To My Husband and Other Poems" gathers together 72 pages of her poetry. Hers is, despite the centuries that separate us from her, a very engaging and meaningful poetic voice.

Many of the poems in this volume are about her family members, and about the joys and sorrows of family life. Bradstreet writes with great warmth and sensitivity about her husband, children, parents, grandchildren, and daughter-in-law. Her poem "To my Dear and loving Husband" is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful love poems ever written. Overall, her family-related poems give real insight into the struggles faced by women of her era, but these poems also have a universality that transcends her time.

There is a lot of other good stuff in this volume. Bradstreet's voice is often quite witty (especially in "The Author to her Book"). "The Prologue" is a fascinating proto-feminist defense of female literary aspiration. Also fascinating is her tribute to England's Queen Elizabeth I. Bradstreet's poetry is essential for scholars of American literature. But her work should be read not just for scholarship, but also for the real humanity and artistry of her voice. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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DESCRIPTION: An illuminating biography of Anne Bradstreet, the first writer--and the first bestseller--to emerge from the wilderness of the New World.Puritan Anne Bradstreet arrived in Massachusetts in 1630, 18 years old and newly married to Simon Bradstreet, the son of a minister. She was accompanied by her imperious father, Thomas Dudley, and a powerful clutch of Protestant dissenters whose descendants would become the founding fathers of the country.Bradstreetís story is a rich one, filled with drama and surprises, among them a passionate marriage, intellectual ferment, religious schisms, mortal illness, and Indian massacres. This is the story of a young woman and poet of great feeling struggling to unearth a language to describe the country in which she finds herself. And it also offers a rich and complex portrait of early America, the Puritans, and their trials and values; a legacy that continues to shape our country to the present day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Bradstreet is Not America's First English Poet
Anne Bradstreet is not America's First English Poet---that honor belongs to Thomas Morton of Merrymount (author of 'New English Canaan'), who at his May Day Revels on Mass. Bay in 1627 created a "Poem" and "Song" for the occasion and wrote other verses about America between 1627 and 1637 publication. Anne Bradstreet did not reach America until 1630, so she cannot be first. Bradstreet's multiple teams of her "Collected Works" editors over the decades have rightly found that there is virtually no trace of "America" in her writings: she would have written the same (wonderful) lyrics if she'd colonized South Africa. Morton, on the other hand, packed his poetry with specific American people, situations, stories and references. And if we should find Morton and Bradstreet equals as Poets, she simply was not first. In fact there are 14 poetic contenders for First American Poet in English with Bradstreet's undeniable achievement published in England in 1650. While she MANIFESTS American poetry (she was writing here), she never conceives or creates it as such. This take nothing from Anne Bradstreet's achievements, but we simply need to correct this if we care as Americans about our real cultural history. Morton's poetry is collected (along with his observations of Native life, his amazing catalog of American wealth and beauty, and his outrageous multicultural stories and satires on Pilgrims and Puritans) in Jack Dempsey, editor, "New English Canaan by Thomas Morton of 'Merrymount,' Text & Notes" (Scituate MA: Digital Scanning 2000). see ancientgreece-earlyamerica dot com

Enthralling
This book entirely captivated me.It was more than entertaining, it taught me a lot about the Puritan way of life and thought both in England and in America.

--
Many people find that Anne Bradstreet's name is familiar because they've read her poems, or because John Berryman has paid a tribute to her. But few realize that Anne Bradstreet was the first published poet--either male or female--here in the New World. Back then, her slim volume of verse was a bestseller. In Ms. Gordon's opinion, Anne Bradstreet was an electrifying personality period in our history.



Anne came to America when she was eighteen-years-old, in 1630, and was among the first wave of settlers in Massachusetts. She arrived just ten short years after the Pilgrims. Though a prominent member of her Puritan community, Anne was also a rebel, flaunting the image of seventeenth century women as too intellectually weak to tackle the male realms of law, science and (the most difficult of all) poetry.



Even though Anne faced hardships such as near starvation, death of loved ones, and isolation, she was determined to write.



Ms. Gordon discovered Anne Bradstreet's writing when she moved to Massachusetts to begin work as an English teacher. Down the street from Ms. Gordon's residence was a partially overgrown plaque stating that near that spot stood the home of Anne Bradstreet. When Ms. Gordon went to school to teach, she discovered a few of Anne's poems in her textbook. Determined to find out more, Ms. Gordon delved deep into history. What she learned turned into this book.



MISTRESS BRADSTREET is easy to read.Even though I don't generally care much for poetry, I enjoyed learning about the life of this early American poet and historical Massachusetts. I expected that it would be like reading a textbook, but it wasn't.



Teachers, home school parents, and fans of poetry and history might enjoy learning about Anne Bradstreet and her life and hardships. Indian massacres and other difficulties fill the pages of this book. MISTRESS BRADSTREET definitely reveals what it was like to be a woman writer in Puritan America. $27.95 (hard cover). 340 pages.

Mistress Bradstreet The Untold Life of America's First Poet
Very interesting and well done. Not for children however owing to the detailed graphic accounts of what happens to someone who is burned at the stake, including woodcuts of pregnant women subjected to this form of execution.

Pioneering in this country was not for the faint hearted and required a lot of intelligence and organizational ability from the women of the household...

Another Misleading Puritan Book
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 ... Read more

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Over 30 poems from the first female poet in the United States. ... Read more

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An unprecedented literary landmark: the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to the present.
 
In a narrative of immense scope and fascination, here are more than 250 female writers, including the famous—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Connor, and Toni Morrison, among others—and the little known, from the early American bestselling novelist Catherine Sedgwick to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell. Showalter integrates women’s contributions into our nation’s literary heritage with brilliance and flair, making the case for the unfairly overlooked and putting the overrated firmly in their place.Amazon.com Review
Book Description
A Jury of Her Peers is an unprecedented literary landmark: the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to 2000.

In a narrative of immense scope and fascination--brimming with Elaine Showalter’s characteristic wit and incisive opinions--we are introduced to more than 250 female writers. These include not only famous and expected names (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Willa Cather, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Connor, Gwendolyn Brooks, Grace Paley, Toni Morrison, and Jodi Picoult among them), but also many who were once successful and acclaimed yet now are little known, from the early American best-selling novelist Catherine Sedgwick to the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Susan Glaspell. Showalter shows how these writers--both the enduring stars and the ones left behind by the canon--were connected to one another and to their times. She believes it is high time to fully integrate the contributions of women into our American literary heritage, and she undertakes the task with brilliance and flair, making the case for the unfairly overlooked and putting the overrated firmly in their place.

Whether or not readers agree with the book’s roster of writers, A Jury of Her Peers is an irresistible invitation to join the debate, to discover long-lost great writers, and to return to familiar titles with a deeper appreciation. It is a monumental work that will greatly enrich our understanding of American literary history and culture.

Amazon Exclusive: Elaine Showalter's Top Ten Books by American Women Writers You Haven't Read (But Should)

Everyone knows the handful of novels by American women writers, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to The House of Mirth and Beloved, that make it onto standard reading lists. But there are hundreds of wonderful books by American women that have been underestimated, overlooked, or forgotten.

Here’s my starting guide to ten extraordinary works of fiction--one from each decade of the twentieth century--that deserve to be much better known.

The Country of Lost Borders by Mary Hunter Austin (1909)
A moving collection of stories emphasizing the California landscape and the vulnerability of women, especially Native Americanwomen who were seduced and abandoned by white men in the Wild West. The memorable final story about a mysterious woman in the desert, “The Walking Woman,” is Austin’s manifesto of female independence, equality, tenderness, and sorrow.

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
Gilman’s clever utopian novel imagines three American men on a scientific expedition who hear tales of a “strange and terrible Woman Land in the high distance,” and decide to find and invade it. Expecting to rule over the women, the men are astounded, entranced, and defeated by the resourcefulness of an all-female society.

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1924)
Fisher was a prolific novelist, a judge for the Book of the Month Club, and a pioneer of Montessori education in the U.S.She claimed that The Home-Maker was more about children’s rights than women’s rights, but she empathized with all the members of a middle-class family whose lives are being destroyed by the straitjacket of maintaining proper male and female roles. When an accident forces the husband and wife to change places, everyone is much happier. This could be a comic premise--Mr. Mom--but Fisher treats it with seriousness and psychological insight.

The Unpossessed by Tess Slesinger (1934)
Slesinger used her disillusion with the whole cultural spectrum of the 1930s for her sparkling satire of the New York leftwing editors of a radical magazine. The novel is both a penetrating autobiographical portrait of the divided woman intellectual of the decade, painfully torn between party politics and personal emancipation; and a timeless and very funny lampoon of ideologues driven by vanity, political trendiness, and competition.

The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford (1947)
Stafford was at her best in this powerful coming-of-age novel about a young brother and sister, Ralph and Molly Fawcett, who spend their summers at their grandfather’s ranch in Colorado. While Ralph is being initiated into adventurous manhood, Molly is fiercely and tragicallyresisting the dull femininity which lies in store for her.

Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks (1953)
The only novel by the poet Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha tells the story of a poor black Chicago housewife, in a lyrical form like that of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, but suffused with anger against racism, war, and the daily small tragedies of black women’s lives. An American classic.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
Long overlooked, Jackson’s masterpiece has been rediscovered in the twenty-first century by writers from Stephen King and Jonathan Lethem to Joyce Carol Oates. A perfectly constructed and spine-chilling example of the female gothic, the novel was among the first great stories of the weird girl, part teenage outcast, part witch, as a dark heroine of American horror.

The Shadow Knows by Diane Johnson (1974)
While Diane Johnson’s novels about Americans in Paris (such as Le Divorce) have been bestsellers, The Shadow Knows is my favorite among her books.Set in Northern California in the early 1970s, it is about the racial conflict and paranoia of the decade, and, in Johnson’s words, “about persons on the fringe; they happen to be women, and what happens to them is meant to be particular to America in the seventies.”

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980)
In her first novel, Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Robinson traced the lives of three generations of women in the imaginary Idaho town of Fingerbone, which is surrounded by mountains and next to a dark lake. The narrator, Ruth, and her sister, Lucille, are passed from one family caregiver to another; finally, their aunt Sylvie Fisher, a wanderer and transient, comes back to keep house for them. But Sylvie’s bizarre housekeeping is like something out of a gothic fairy tale, and the sisters find their separate ways to create their own domestic visions.

Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen (1996)
Gish Jenis one of the funniest and most free-wheeling novelists of the multicultural 90s. In Mona in the Promised Land, whose title plays off a long tradition of Jewish-American immigrant writing, the adolescent Chinese-American heroine Mona Chang is at a new stage of ethnic identity, renaming and self-creation. In their own enclave, she and her high school friends exchange food, music, games, and politics. In the promised land, American girls can change their names, their religions, even re-invent their nationalities.

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Customer Reviews (12)

Jury of Her Peers
What: Jury of Her Peers-American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, by Elaine Showalter, 2009

This literary history, organized chronologically over 350 years of American women's literature, makes distinctions, selections, and judgments over this often overlooked segment of American history.The title is based on the 1917 short story by Susan Glaspell called, "A Jury of Her Peers".The theme of Susan Glaspell's short story raises the moral question of how a patriarchal world can fairly judge a woman's value.In the case of "A Jury of Her Peers", a woman's guilt is in question; but Elaine Showalter then extrapolates the theme to that of the futility of women writers being judged as writers by a patriarchal world of publishers and editors.

This 500-page, very-readable history is for those who love literature--especially American literature--and even more precisely, little-known women's literature.It unfolds and reveals a rich panorama of our history. How did the author approach such a voluminous task, and what distinguishes women's literature from literature written by men?Elaine Showalter clarifies that she is not basing her distinctions or judgments on biology or any sexual differences; but, rather, on societal pressures on women over these 350 years as opposed to the pressures and roles of men. From such a broad and sometimes obscure history, the author focuses her search for women who wrote for publication as opposed to women who wrote diaries, letters, recipes, etc. She also focuses on traditional literary genres--poems, plays, and fiction as well as popular fiction, girls' books, hit plays, and satiric verses.Negotiating the task of writing as a vocation with the other daily tasks of women throughout our history is a constant challenge that runs throughout these writers' lives.And inviting us into their lives to see how they did it all was fascinating.How they all juggled their writing careers tells us something about the cultural changes constantly occurring.

This author identifies the first phase in women's writing to be analogous to all cultural history at this point; "the prolonged phase of imitation of prevailing modes..."; the phase of "protest against these modes along with its corresponding advocacy of independent rights and values"; and, third, the phase of self discovery".Or more bluntly put, "feminine, feminist, and female."

Whatever your reason for picking up this tome, you cannot help but be intrigued by all the authors names and want to rush to your community library.Susan Glaspell's story, "Jury of Her Peers," can be found on the Internet along with a few others.A truly grand accomplishment that is keeping literature alive and teaches us there is no end to learning.

Fascinating and comprehensive
Women have always been writing, even before our nation was created, but it is only until now that one woman has endeavored to chronicle the history of women writers--essayists, novelists, playwrights, poets, and more--in America. A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, written by Elaine Showalter, a professor emerita at Princeton University, is the the first book of its kind. Its title is aptly taken from the short story by early twentieth century writer Susan Glaspell, about two women who conceal evidence of another woman's crime, appointing themselves a jury of her peers, and protecting her from "the patriarchal system of the Law."

The theme of judgment throughout this book is present, but not overpowering. A Jury of Her Peers is quite readable and fascinating as Showalter explores not only the works, but also the lives, of the many women who have in some way taken part in shaping our culture and our country, and how they are all interrelated. Showalter's canon is expansive and diverse, and she writes as much about the lesser-known women as much as she does of Dickinson, Cather, Alcott, and the like. In fact, it is her insights on those names not often heard that make the book most fascinating, and some of the best essays are about Susanna Rowson and Julia Ward Howe.

Though, as the title implies, the book is focused on writers, Showalter's work touches upon a broad range of subjects: literature, performing arts, political activism, and the mundane tasks of every day life. This is an excellent, powerful, and well-researched source for knowledge and insight on how woman through the ages have lived. It is thought-provoking and will leave you with a long list of books to read and a strong urge to visit the library.

But despite being a celebration of women writers, and one would even argue, women's history, perhaps the best part about A Jury of Her Peers is that she illustrates through her many biographies, excerpts, and anecdotes that despite the fact that society views these individuals first as women and not writers, solely being a woman is not what makes these writers or their works so great. Showalter gives the hundreds of women she writes about what many of them searched for but could not accomplish: a voice of their own and the recognition they deserve for playing such an integral role in our history.

Showalter is a joke
I wouldn't believe anything this charlatan has written.This is the same woman who wrote Hystories, in which claimed ME/CFIDS was hysteria like people who claimed they were abducted by aliens.There are over 5,000 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals showing frank biological pathology.

Evolution of women authors
A very fine history of the evolution of women writers from the 1600s to today. Very important for men and women to learn about the literature and background of these very talented writers. Enjoyed the book very much.

A Jury of Her Peers
A fine and exhaustive research project that provides an encylopedia of women writers throughout the history of women in literature. ... Read more

Product Description
The birthday of the babyAnne Dudleyhas no record; her birthplace even is not absolutely certainalthough there is little doubt that it was at Northhampton in Englandthe home of her father¿s family. ... Read more

Product Description
Born in Lincolnshire, England, Anne Bradstreet moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband, Simon Bradstreet, in 1630. A Puritan through and through, she imbibed from the deep wells of Puri ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Where's Anne?
I originally thought this book was of Anne's poetry, with a mere introduction by Douglas Wilson. Instead, it is a study of her life by him. Unfortunetly, I must agree with the first reviewer: rather than making this a moving tribute, Douglas Wilson has merely attempted to turn it into a testimony of his own views of womanhood.

Apparently, there's some disagreement about how Anne viewed womanhood. Most readers believe she saw more of womanhood than many of her time, whereas people like Wilson prefer to see her as a woman who "knew her place." Wilson harps on and on about how Anne let the men rule like a good little girl and didn't try to compete with them. The book basically turns into an anti-feminist, pro-submissive book rather than an appreciation of a brilliant poet.

Wilson spends a good deal of time explaining how spiritually unhealthy feminists are and how lovely Anne Bradstreet was. He fills pages with how modern women today would be horrified by Anne's "true" leadership because we're too jaded by feminism and how Anne herself would be horrified by how women today are not complimenting manhood the way we should. The only thing I found more humorous than Wilson's thinly disguised anti-equality tirade is how grossly he and so many of his ilk simply don't get Biblical egalitarianism! Once again, his faulty understanding of equality keeps him from realizing what power Anne really had. Wilson claims that feminists today would see Anne's influential leadership as secondary and not good enough, but he couldn't be more wrong, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'm no feminist, but I am an egalitarian (which to Wilson is the same) and I greatly appreciate the tendency of historical women to lead by influence since there were few times that they could do anything else. Indeed, this has always been one of women's greatest strengths, today and back then! Many a historical woman held the upper hand because they led in such a way that men couldn't even tell the scope of their influence, or see the changes they were making and the power that they had. This is the sort of leader that Anne was, and I couldn't care less whether she did this as a warrior queen or a quietly instructional woman. To say that she didn't share egalitarian beliefs to ANY extent is as erroneous and ridiculous as claiming that Mark Twain didn't really believe in racial equality. As an advocate for gender equality, I very much admire Anne Bradstreet's power of leadership, as well as the men in her life who were gracious and secure enough to celebrate it.

At one point, Wilson attempts to prove that Anne Bradstreet was opposed to feminism by sharing a line of her poetry in which she spoke of a woman usurping her husband's place as king. She said this of the woman:

"like a brave virago she played the rex, and was both shame and glory of her sex."

(Lord, does that beautiful line give me chills!) Douglas Wilson apparently thinks this line alone proves that Anne would have hated feminism, and I had to wonder if he was serious. Anne admitted that the woman in question was shame AND glory of her sex; this sounds to me like Anne was referring to the fact that the woman merely shamed the stereotype of what her sex was supposed to be and, in so doing, broke free of the restrictions of her gender and became a glory unto herself even as she was considered a shame by other women. Indeed, I too would wish to be a shame to the narrow mold of womanhood that people of the time held and that people like Douglas Wilson still hold.

Even more amusingly, Wilson later says that Anne was a Christian and understood the "order of the world" (ie, men in charge) but she did understand that occasionally, sometimes, God could use a Deborah. And by realizing this RARE exception, Wilson said she wrote a poem saying Queen Elizabeth "cast aside the aspersions of her sex" and no people were ruled better than hers. And Wilson calls this an admittance that she knew ruling women were RARE? That's just cute. There was no such hint in her words; they made it remarkably plain she thought women more than capable of ruling, NO exception.

In fact, an unbiased critic of a body of Anne's work confirmed that she did, indeed, see her sex as something far greater than the narrow mold that the Douglas Wilsons of the time wished to put her in. She not only scorned those who told her that needlework was more suitable than writing, but "masked her true intentions" by appearing to flatter male writers and acknowledge them as superior! Apparently, Douglas Wilson bought her flattery hook, line and sinker just like some of the men of her time, because he actually claims in the book that she realized male writers were superior! I had to laugh at that. Once again, he proves himself the cuckold in gender matters by not only underestimating a woman's strength, but her knowledge of her own power.

If you're looking for a fine work dedicated to Anne Bradstreet, I suggest you look elsewhere. I myself plan to get Nichols' book, "Anne Bradstreet: A guided Tour". Nichols' book contains the lady's actual poetry and only brief outside notes.

Puritan Femininity
This book is part of the Leaders in Action series, which means it is not a typical biography.These books are usually written in three parts, each one focusing on the life, the character, and the legacy of the subject, in this case, Anne Bradstreet.

The book does describe her life, but more importantly, her views on life.Anne was a Puritan, through and through, and she was a beautiful woman in whose footsteps the women of today would do well to follow.She knew her place, and delighted in her role as a woman.She lived with passion, and the book describes those things, people, and ideas about which she was passionate.I look to Anne as an ideal of a Godly woman, a woman whose many virtues I would like to mirror.

Wilson makes the point that Anne was a typical Puritan in her beliefs and views.She does not conform to the Puritan stereotype, which is not Puritan at all, but more like a grim Victorian outlook.The Puritans were sober but not grim.They valued their women, and their education.They were passionate about life.

I recommend the book to those who want a better understanding of Anne's character, and that of her times, and those who want to see the life of an exemplary Christian woman.

The Poet Got Left Behind
The author seems unable to stay on topic for very long. In his determination to associate Anne Bradstreet with all of his views, he abandons any chance to help us understand and appreciate her worthwhile body of work.

Wilson constantly harps and carps about the bad rap given to the Puritans. Even when I agree that certain common statements about the Puritans are unfair and incorrect, I am put off by his pompous tone.

Skip this one. Go straight to "The Works of Anne Bradstreet" (Harvard University Press) to get a good dose of a fine poet. ... Read more

Product Description
Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, and Adrienne Rich share nationality, gender, and an aesthetic tradition, but each expresses these experiences in the context of her own historical moment.Puritanism imposed stringent demands on Bradstreet, romanticism both inspired and restricted Dickinson, and feminism challenged as well as liberated Rich.Nevertheless, each poet succeeded in forming a personal vision that counters traditional male poetics.Their poetry celebrates daily life, demonstrates their commitment to nurturance rather than dominance, shows their resistance to the control of both their earthly and heavenly fathers, and affirms their experience in a world that has often denied women a voice.

Wendy Martin recreates the textures of these women's lives, showing how they parallel the shifts in the status of American women from private companion to participant in a wider public life.The three portraits examine in detail the life and work of the Puritan wife of a colonial magistrate, the white-robed, reclusive New England seer, and the modern feminist and lesbian activist.Their poetry, Martin argues, tells us much about the evolution of feminist and patriarchal perspectives, from Bradstreet's resigned acceptance of traditional religion, to Dickinson's private rebellion, to Rich's public criticism of traditional masculine culture.Together, these portraits compose the panels of an American triptych.

Beyond the dramatic contrasts between the Puritan and feminist vision, Martin finds striking parallels in form.An ideal of a new world, whether it be the city on the hill or a supportive community of women, inspires both.Like the commonwealth of saints, this concept of a female collectivity, which all three poets embrace, is a profoundly political phenomenon based on a pattern of protest and reform that is deeply rooted in American life.Martin suggests that, through their belief in regeneration and renewal, Bradstreet Dickinson, and Rich are part of a larger political as well as literary tradition.An American Triptych both enhances ourunderstanding of the poets' work as part of the web of American experience and suggests the outlines of an American female poetic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A mustforanyone interested
This book is a must for anyone interested in the 3 title poets.Wendy Martin does an excellent job in her analysis of these great female poets.She provides necessary backgound information along with correlative interpretation and history of the authors' works.This book is not only a informative and helpful tool, but it is an interesting read. ... Read more

Product Description
Originally published in 1897. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description

Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. But all, through their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires, uniquely illuminate our shared experience

Anne Bradstreet is recognized as one of the most important figures in the history of American literature, yet the majority of her poetry remained private until after her death. As a Puritan wife and mother, Anne knew that sharing her views and opinions with others was considered a sin, but she clearly valued knowledge and intellect, and was a free thinker. Bradstreet's work serves as a document of the struggles of the hardships of colonial life and in some ways is a testament to the plight of the women of the age. Anne's life was a constant struggle, from her difficult adaptation to the rigors of the new land, to her constant battle with illness. She turned inward and let her faith and imagination guide her through the most difficult moments. Her poetry, filled with the love she had for God, her husband, and her eight children, showcased her intense devotion to being a good wife, mother, and Christian.

Customer Reviews (31)

Excellent
I love this book and highly recommend it.I greatly enjoyed the read, as would anyone who appreciates time with a well written book.

With so little known about Anne Bradstreet's life, I appreciate the way Kellogg filled-in the gaps without fictionalizing. Drawing from Anne's writings, and the writings of others, she created a compelling characterization of America's first significant female poet. I especially like the way Anne's poetry is woven into the narrative. Anne was a great writer. We come to know her through her intellect and heartfelt expressions of love, fear, joy and sorrow--the full spectrum of human emotion. We get to know Anne through her own words in the context of Puritan life, with its considerable hardships.Kellogg drew me into the the story, leading me to admire Anne's courage, spirit, and gifts as a writer. I found the historical information interesting and was grateful it did not bog down the essential purpose of the book.

I think this volume, along with others in the series, are ideal for study and discussion in adult Christian education classes, college, and high school, especially in the home school or Christian school setting. As a Christian, I enjoyed the objective overview of the values, views and virtues in colonial America. I thought about that period in our country's religious history for the first time in many years, reflecting on how it influenced our founding fathers and mothers and how it compares and contrasts with the many, diverse contemporary expressions of faith.

A Great Way to Read about incredible people from our past!
I love Anne Bradstreet, thus, my reasoning for choosing this particular book.

One of thethings I fell in love with this book is the author's choice to tell the story of Anne Bradstreet through story telling.

Instead of cold hard facts, and the details of history that one often forgets, the author chose to share Bradstreet's life with the reader through story telling, thus, inviting the reader into the very fabric of Anne's life.

This enabled me to feel as if I were there with Anne during that epoch, living out her life right next to her.

It made what could have been a cold and distant reading, warm and inviting.

I'm looking forward to reading some of this author's other "stories"!

Worth the read!

*I received this book free from Booksneeze as part of their Blogging 4 Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Enjoyable though could be better
I am a fan of Bradstreet's poetry. I thought this book did a good job of setting the stage, so to speak-- peaking interest in people who might not know much about Anne Bradstreet, or about the Mass Bay Colony for that matter. I did wish it had gone into more detail about her life. However, maybe there isn't really that much to know: not everyone leaves a detailed paper trail for future biographers!

I really appreciated that Kellogg didn't give too much credence to her own suppositions. She was careful to say "maybe" and "possibly" when describing events that we have no hard evidence to prove. (For example, that Bradstreet "probably" felt a certain way about Anne Hutchinson . . . not that she definitely "did.")

The writing was pleasant to read overall. Sometimes the transitions felt jerky, mostly between paragraphs, and the chapters didn't really build on one another in a continuous whole. They were related, but seemed to be a collection of snapshots, with the links left up to the reader.

So yes, I'd recommend reading this. It was packed with interesting facts and gave a helpful general outline of Bradstreet's life. It is definitely a BRIEF biography though, so don't expect an in-depth treatment of the inner workings of Anne Bradstreet's mind!

Great book about an amazing woman!
While on vacation, I read this new biography of Anne Bradstreet, by D.B. Kellogg. Bradstreet was one of the first female poets in America in the mid-1600s. I was drawn to this book because I have really liked Anne Bradstreet's poetry since being assigned to read a few of her works in high school. I am normally not a fan of poetry, but something about Bradstreet has always stuck with me.

I enjoyed that this book gave historical background about the Puritans and the struggle that settlers in the new world faced in the 1600s because it helped to show how amazing it was that Anne Bradstreet was able to produce such a large body of work. She was responsible for caring for her household and her many children, all while living in new towns that were built up on the American frontier right before her eyes. Additionally, Anne often suffered from serious illnesses, many of which confined her to bed. Many of her most famous works were created as a means to teach her children, and required a great deal of research. My favorite poem, To My Dear and Loving Husband, shows the depth of the love that Anne and her husband shared, which is something that can often be overlooked about many Puritans in those days.

I think this book gave me greater motivation to be a wife and mother who is constantly looking to serve my family well. We have so many luxuries that the early American settlers did not posses. The life of Anne Bradstreet is a great example of the impact one ordinary person can have on her family, and the legacy that life can leave for generations to come. This is a great book, a quick read with high quality content, and I give it a 5 out of 5!

I was provided with a free copy of this book by Thomas Nelson and Book Sneeze in exchange for my honest evaluation and review. All opinions about the book are 100% mine.

Interesting Life, Not a Very Good Book
Thomas Nelson Publishers recently sent me this book as a free review copy; my thoughts are below.

Anne Bradstreet's life is a remarkable legacy of Christian devotion, perseverance, and Biblical womanhood. Often in her life she experienced times of great physical illness, but she never gave in to the temptation of playing the invalid and not involving herself in the affairs of her family. With a busy brood of eight children the Bradstreet home never lacked work, especially in the early New England wilderness in which they settled. Anne faithfully devoted herself to family duties, educating her children, showing hospitality to friend and stranger alike, and spending time meditating upon her God.

Somehow amid this busy life of sickness and toil she managed to write whole books of poetry, dealing with profound ideas of life, family, and religion, as well as historical epics which demonstrated her comprehensive grasp of past events. The name of Anne Bradstreet became respected throughout both Old and New England, with men and women alike enthusiastically complimenting her literary works.

D. B. Kellogg's biography, while informative, is not very well written, and does not give as good an understanding of Bradstreet's life as I would wish. It is somewhat unorganized, and seems more like a collection of essays, tied together by some chronological threads. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more