Reflections on Anne Bradstreet's "The Author to Her Book"

Anyone who has ever written an academic paper or submitted a piece of writing for publication can identify with Anne Bradstreet’s anxiety in “The Author to Her Book.” Bradstreet personifies her work as a newborn child which has descended from the creative womb of her imagination, thus making birthing an apt analogy. We learn that her book of poems is a premature birth, that it is imperfect, flawed, and perhaps even deformed. She describes it as “my rambling brat (in print)” (line 8). Well intentioned friends, which she describes as “less wise than true” (3) have taken a book of unfinished poems from her and had them published without her consent. As a result, the world will judge her by an incomplete work that was not intended for publication. Bradstreet’s apparent self-doubt is a reflection of her Puritan faith that requires humility and self-critique rather than poor self-esteem. She is inadvertently forced to operate from a disadvantage, but she has to play the hand she was dealt. There is no going back. History reveals that women writers of that period were held to a different standard than men. Perhaps they still are.   

Charles Sullivan