Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 in England. She grew up privileged; her father was Thomas Dudley, a steward to an Earl, and his status allowed for her to obtain an elite education. She married Simon Bradstreet at sixteen and eventually left for the Americas with him. They settled in New England in 1630, where her husband became a politician. She was a mother of eight and led a Puritan lifestyle, writing poetry when she had time to spare. Anne Bradstreet was one of the very first authors to emerge from the early American colonies. This was ironic because her work was published by her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge in London and, according to Bradstreet, without her knowledge (“Anne Bradstreet”). However, scholars, including Eileen Margerum, still debate whether she was really unaware of her work(s) being published. As a Puritan woman in the 1600s, it would have been extremely inappropriate for her to publish works. It is possible that her claims that she was unaware were tools to prevent her from receiving public backlash. Bradstreet’s claims of her work being published without her knowledge were supported within her writing, including within “The Author to Her Book.” In this poem, Bradstreet writes, “Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true. / Who thee abroad expos’d to public view.” Scholars have been debating the validity of Bradstreet’s claims for a long time, but there is no indisputable evidence for either side (Margerum). Bradstreet’s works contain references to her religious beliefs and discuss the conflicts she underwent as an aspiring female Puritan writer. Her writing helped her maintain close relationships with her husband and children and provided a form of solace from the difficulties of life, and her writing even helped her strengthen her religious beliefs. One can examine Bradstreet’s figurative language to find the heart of her inner conflict, one between her Puritan beliefs and her womanhood. This point is best argued in Ivy Schweitzer’s article “Anne Bradstreet Wrestles with the Renaissance.” Schweitzer writes, “Bradstreet is said to have discovered her authentic, gendered voice.” As a result, readers truly “see” Bradstreet. They see the quandaries she must undergo as a Puritan and as a woman and how accurately her work represents her, struggles and all.

Bradstreet’s work showcased her life as a mother and her relationship to motherhood. In “The Author to Her Book,” she writes about her book The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America as if writing about her own offspring. However, her relationship with her book seems to have its ups and downs. Throughout her poem, Bradstreet appears to battle between her own passion for writing and her spiritual beliefs, leading to her insulting herself and her work. As a Puritan woman, she was not allowed to showcase her work as something she was proud of, and some scholars have said that her insults toward her book were not genuine. These insults can also be read as an exercise in humility, which was popular amongst writers at this time and was a tenet of her Puritan faith as well (Ball). We can assume that her put-downs were not authentic because Bradstreet had a variety of published and non-published works, and in her non-published works, there were no put-downs of her poetry, suggesting that this may have been implemented in published works to save face (Margerum).

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was originally published in 1650 and is the only of Bradstreet’s works published during her lifetime. It was republished in 1678, six years after her passing, with additional works that were not in the original edition, including “The Author to Her Book.” The work consists of Bradstreet’s anguish over her not being good enough to be presented in front of the mass audience and critics alike. Bradstreet expresses regret over presenting her work, which she refers to as her child, to the public through the publication of The Tenth Muse.” Bradstreet, representing herself as the mother of this child, laments that she has birthed such an unfit child, and chastises herself over the child’s defects. Bradstreet lays forth the remorse, anxieties and fears she had about the publication of her work through this extended metaphor. She addresses all the negative feelings that are within her and the resentment she has about her publication. She deems it a defective child that she attempted to clean up, to correct its defects, though all her efforts prove fruitless. Bradstreet, as its mother, acknowledges that she cannot rid the child of the flaws she bestowed upon it, and with that there is no going back. Her metaphorical child has been exposed to the light, and Bradstreet, although ashamed of herself, must come to terms with that reality.

“The Author to Her Book”