Mistress Bradstreet

Critical Praise

"Written with maximal clarity and communicativeness, this is a vibrant, engaging, realistic portrayal of early colonial Massachusetts and of its fascinating biographical subject."
-Booklist

"Researching and writing as I do for Christian History Institute, I open many biographies in the course of a year. I think I can claim to know a good one when I see it. Mistress Bradstreet is a real page turner. Not only has Charlotte Gordon captured the feel of Puritan life on both sides of the Atlantic in the early colonial period, but she has taken us into Anne's emotions while doing it. The pioneer poet's personal faith shines through the pages. An excellent read."
Reviewed by Dan Graves, Chi.gospelcom.net (Christian History Institute)

"By contemporary standards, Bradstreet's poetry is rather mediocre and limp. But her story is thoroughly compelling and Gordon brilliantly details the religious and political struggles that shaped Bradstreet's world. The book works beautifully, both as a literary biography and a celebration of colonial history, and it is highly recommended."
-EdgeBoston.com

"How fortunate we are to have America’s first published poet rescued from an undeserved obscurity. This lively account of New England’s female poet casts 'the city set on a hill' within the lyrical light of this idiosyncratic poetic imagination. Through her lines we see, perhaps for the first time, just how new New England and the New World really were."
—Reverend Peter J. Gomes, author of The Good Life

"A creative merging of Anne Bradstreet's life and art, in ways that illuminate what it was like to be a woman—and more remarkably, a woman writer—in Puritan America."
—David D. Hall, author of

"Mistress Bradstreet is a humane, deeply imagined story about a courageous woman who happens also to be America's first poet. Bradstreet springs fully to life under Gordon's pen; we see the Puritan wife’s private struggles, and we see the complex social and theological world in which she grew into her full selfhood as woman and writer. This is a beautifully written and learned book."
—Rosanna Warren, author of Departure and Chancellor, Academy of American Poets