First Name:
Katrina
Last Name:
Benton
Major Department:
English
Thesis Director:
Colin Ramsey
Date of Thesis:
May 2009
In 1650, Anne Bradstreet’s brother-in-law, Rev. John Woodbridge, took Bradstreet’s manuscripts to London to have them printed without her permission or knowledge. For decades, scholars have discussed Anne Bradstreet’s reaction to this unauthorized printing of her poems. In Elizabeth Wade White’s 1971 biography on Anne Bradstreet, she wrote: “But nothing in [her life] suggests that Anne Bradstreet had a serious vocation as a poet. …her more formal or public poems, especially those written from 1638 to 1644…are full of references, many of them critical, to herself as a poet” (126). White theorizes that Bradstreet felt strongly, but negatively, about her work as a poet but whether or not Bradstreet was really interested in the broader publicity of print remains a distinct, if related, question. Indeed the details of Bradstreet’s background, her strong voice in her poetry as an author, and her situation as a Puritan wife and mother, suggest that the real level of Bradstreet’s desire for print is quite complex. Through analyzing historical context, Bradstreet’s public and private poetic voices, gender and art in Puritan society, and Bradstreet’s publication and marketing history, Bradstreet’s desire for print publication existed, at least to some degree, even if her first printed book was produced without her consent.