Reviews
“Gordon's efforts, complete with extended bibliography, make for a solid introduction to Bradstreet's life for anyone interested in the earliest years of our regional history.”
—MELANIE LAUWERS, CAPE COD TIMES
“Gordon does a masterful job of recreating Bradstreet's world...Gordon creates a very believable character, relying on the poetry to give her a voice...She succeeds admirably.”
—SAM COALE, PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
“Gordon tells Anne Bradstreet's gripping tale, including hardships and delights, in a clear, lively style.”
—M. S. MASON AND REBECCA SALOMONSSON, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
“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 WORLDS OF WONDER, DAYS OF JUDGMENT
“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
“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 OF ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS
“Written with maximal clarity and communicativeness, this is a vibrant, engaging, realistic portrayal of early colonial Massachusetts and of its fascinating biographical subject.”
—RAY OLSON, BOOKLIST (STARRED)
“An elegiac history...This book has a great appeal to anyone interested in history, literature, poetry, religion, or the American spirit. Charlotte Gordon has contributed more than merely biography here, she has contributed to the human understanding of what lies at the core of this country and its people.”
—J. PETER BERGMAN, BERKSHIRE EAGLE
“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.”