Author to Her Book, The

Author to Her Book, The, is a poem by the early American poet Anne Bradstreet. She was the first American poet to have a volume of poems published. Bradstreet was born in England. She moved to America in 1630 and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband, Simon Bradstreet, who later became governor. “The Author to Her Book” was inspired by the publication of Bradstreet’s first volume of poems, The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung up in America. Her brother-in-law took it to England and published it in 1650 without her knowledge.

Bradstreet probably wrote “The Author to Her Book” in 1666. The poem expresses the author’s embarrassment at seeing the first publication of her verses. The book also had several printing errors. In preparation for a second edition of her book, Bradstreet wrote a poem wittily comparing her first book to an “ill-formed” child who shames its mother. “The Author to Her Book” was published in 1678 with the revised edition of The Tenth Muse, titled Several Poems Compiled with Great Variety of Wit and Learning.

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth didst by my side remain, Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true Who thee abroad, exposed to public view, Made thee in rags halting to th’ press to trudge, Where errors were not lessened (all may judge). At thy return my blushing was not small, My rambling brat (in print) should mother call, I cast thee by as one unfit for light, Thy visage was so irksome in my sight; Yet being mine own, at length affection would Thy blemishes amend, if so I could. I washed thy face, but more defects I saw, And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw. I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet, Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet; In better dress to trim thee was my mind, But nought save homespun cloth i’ th’ house I find. In this array ‘mongst vulgars may’st thou roam. In critic’s hands beware thou dost not come, And take thy way where yet thou art not known; If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none; And for thy mother, she alas is poor, Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.

Though Anne Bradstreet wrote a number of longer and more serious poems, pieces like this have proved more enduring. The direct and honest self-appraisal of “The Author to Her Book” has appealed to readers for centuries. The light humor and use of extended metaphor (implied comparison, such as a book being compared to a child) resemble the great Metaphysical English poets of the 1600’s. The Metaphysical poets used everyday language, irregular poetic rhythms, and clever metaphors known as conceits. Here, Bradstreet not only describes her embarrassment at seeing her “ill-formed offspring” exposed but also writes about the agonies of trying to improve its appearance. A writer’s attempt at revision is compared to a mother’s anxious scrubbing and dressing of her child. Her effort even extends to the attempt to improve “feet”—a term for the units of poetic meter.

Bradstreet interests readers today because she is one of the earliest women poets published in English. Some critics have called her the first major woman poet in the language. She wrote her poems while she also carried out her duties as a governor’s wife, mother of eight children, and devout Puritan. Although many of the poems in The Tenth Muse imitate great poets, the poems that stand out today are the modest, domestic, personal poems. Bradstreet’s greatest material was what she called the “homespun cloth” of her own experience.

See also Bradstreet, Anne; American literature (Colonial literature (1608-1764)).