Bradstreet, Anne Dudley. The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse. Edited by John Harvard Ellis. Charlestown [MA] Abraham E. Cutter, 1867
Fourth Edition, including the first appearance in print of two poems, one of 250 copies, numbered and paraphed by the publisher, inscribed from the publisher on the half-title, "Geo Henry Preble, with the kind regards of Abraham E. Cutter, Christmas 1871.“ 4to; lxxxvi, 434pp; including index, title in red and black, head-and-tailpieces, decorations, frontispiece and several other plates in facsimile. Original green cloth, new white label printed in black on spine, a facsimile of original label, corners and tips a bit rubbed, front hinge cracked, pages browned at edges, some professional restoration, about very good. This elegant volume is the fourth edition of Bradstreet’s writings, the previous editions being: first, London, 1650, as THE TENTH MUSE LATELY SPRUNG UP IN AMERICA; second, Boston, 1678, as SEVERAL POEMS COMPILED WITH GREAT VARIETY OF WIT AND LEARNING; and third, Boston, 1758. Tipped into this copy at the front free endpaper is a broadside containing the verse „In Memoriam“ for the editor, John Harvard Ellis, who died in 1870, by the publisher; at the half-title is the original one-page prospectus for this edition; and at the Preface a manuscript list of the Bradstreet family from Anne and her husband Simon through 1846. Ellis’s introduction is extensive, his notes throughout are copious, and Bradstreet’s „Religious Experiences and Occasional Poems“ and „Meditations, Divine and Moral“ are here first printed in full at pp. 1-75 from her manuscript notebook. Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612-1672) was born to the wealthy Thomas Dudley, keeper of the vast estates of the nonconformist Earl of Lincoln. An educated woman, (unusual for the time) Anne had private tutors, the cultural surroundings of Tattershall Castle, and access to the Earl’s library. She studied Latin, natural science, and religion and became a woman of considerable culture. In 1628 she married Simon Bradstreet; in 1630 sailed for America with her husband and parents. She lived in Boston, Cambridge, and North Andover. Her father, Thomas, and her husband, Simon, became governors of the Colony. Bradstreet, often called „the mother of American poetry,“ was the first American poet of either gender. While her early work is largely imitative of European styles and ideas, her later poems show that she was a genuinely creative poet; her prose advancing new ideas, often in the style of ancient proverbs and sincere aphorisms. Significantly, „Bradstreet’s poetic universe is filled with female presence.“ Woman’s Writing. George Henry Preble, to whom this copy is inscribed, was an important naval officer and author. An admiral, he was in the Florida War of 1841-42, the Mexican War, in the Battle of New Orleans with Farragut during the Civil War, and he was with Perry’s expedition to China and Japan. NAW I, pp. 222-223. Feminist Companion, pp.130-131. Heinemann, Timelines, p. 306. Grolier Club, Emerging Voices, American Woman Writers, p. 31. Women’s Writing in the United States, pp. 131-133. Weatherford, American Women’s History, p. 50. Sabin # 7299.
$US1500
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