Anne Bradstreet (–1672)

Anne Bradstreet was the first woman writer to be published in colonial America. She came from a cultured English family and was well-educated for a woman of her time. At age 16 she married her childhood sweetheart, Simon Bradstreet, a Puritan minister. The family emigrated to America in 1630 and joined the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Life was difficult and Anne was frequently ill -- but she had 8 children and managed the family farm as well as writing poetry.