Anne Bradstreet
Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612-1672) arrived in the British North American Colonies in 1630 with her husband and family, settling first in Salem and ultimately in Cambridge. She became the first poet and published female writer in Colonial English North America with the release of The Tenth Muse.
The Tenth Muse (London: 1650). Unbeknownst to Bradstreet, her brother-in-law, Rev. John Woodridge, carried the manuscript of this volume to Britain in 1647, hoping to sell it to a London publisher. He was successful; three years later, The Tenth Muse was published and attributed to “a Gentlewoman in those parts.” Bradstreet’s second book of poetry, Several Poems, was published posthumously in 1678.