If you were Anne Bradstreet, how would you feel about having a preface like this one in your book?
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)
Anne Dudley Bradstreet was the first person in the British colonies to have a book of poetry published. Her father was steward to an Earl of Lincoln and the young Anne had access to the Earl's library and private tutors. Her educational opportunities were very unusual for a girl of her time. Her family was Puritan, among those planning the Massachusetts Bay colony. Anne Dudley married Simon Bradstreet in England, and with her husband and parents she arrived in Massachusetts in 1630.
Anne Bradstreet wrote poetry while raising eight children. She was a respected woman in her community and both her husband and father had careers as public servants. Bradstreet's brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, recognized her poetical talents. He insisted, against Anne's resistance, upon bringing her poems to London where he had them published in 1650. At this time in history women writers were not very well respected. Not only were women thought to have weaker intellectual abilities, but they were also expected to spend all their time and energy working for their families and communities. John Woodbridge inserted a preface in The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, to prove to the reader that the author really was a woman and that she had not neglected her duties in order to write:
"...the worst effect of his [the reader's] reading will be unbelief, which will make him question whether it be a woman's work, and ask, is it possible? If any do, take this as an answer from him that dares avow it; it is the work of a woman, honored, and esteemed where she lives, for her gracious demeanor, her eminent parts, her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in her place, and discreet managing of her family occasions, and more than so, these poems are the fruit but of some few hours, curtailed from her sleep and other refreshments."