[Anne Dudley]. First woman versifier in America, born in Northampton, England, about 1612. She was a daughter of Governor Thomas Dudley, and was married to Governor Bradstreet in 1628. She published, in London, in 1650, a book of poems entitled The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung up in America. Her complete works, prose and verse, were published in Charlestown, MA, in 1868. In 1666 a fire destroyed her entire library. Her verses are founded on good English models, but lack originality, ease and novelty. She died on the 16th of September 1672. See also “Dedication: ‘To My Dear Children’,” “Anne Bradstreet,” “Of the Four Ages of Man,” “A Love-Letter to Her Husband,” “Meditations Divine and Moral,” “Contemplations”; Literary Criticism.
