Book Review

Anne Bradstreet by D. B. Kellogg is an excellent book. It's about the Puritan poet, Anne Bradstreet. She was born in England and married at 16 to Simon Bradstreet who was nine years older than her. They both truly loved each other as her poems testify to. When Anne was 18, her husband, parents, and siblings all traveled to Massachusetts to escape the persecution the king had ordered against the Puritans.

Anne's father was unusual for his time period in that he encouraged his daughter to read and write. She loved history and of course, poetry. Her extensive knowledge is seen in her poems.

Anne was always sickly. She suffered from fainting spells, pains that confined her to bed, and seemed to pick up lots of maladies like smallpox. She eventually died from consumption at age sixty. But with all her health problems, she traveled to the New World, lived in the wilderness, and had 8 children! Anne wondered if she would ever have chidren, but she had their first child, a son, when she was twenty. She went on to have three more sons and four daughters. They all survived to adulthood!

First and foremost, Anne was a devout Christian. Her poems are full of her faith and trust in God. Her poetry was the first to be published by a woman in the New World. Her brother-in-law published it on a trip to England when Anne was thirty-eight. It is unclear whether or not she agreed to it or not.

Anne Bradford has left some great poems to be enjoyed by us today.

I was given this book free as long as I review it.