Book excerpt: "Anne Bradstreet was the first American female writer as well as the first American female poet to have her works published.Anne Bradstreet (March 20, 1612 - September 16, 1672), née Dudley, was the most prominent of early English poets of North America and first writer in England's North American colonies to be published. She is the first Puritan figure in American Literature and notable for her large corpus of poetry, as well as personal writings published posthumously. Born to a wealthy Puritan family in Northampton, England, Bradstreet was a well-read scholar especially affected by the works of Du Bartas." -- Amazon.com (review for paperback edition)