At eighteen, Anne Bradstreet left England for the New World in search of religious liberty. Despite many hardships, she became famous as America's first published poet. A devoted wife and mother, she was a woman of deep spiritual convictions, seeing the Christian life as a pilgrimage with a better world to come. Faith Cook shows how this woman lived ‘not to set forth myself, but the glory of God'. Anne's writings reveal the biblical truths that shaped America's early laws and underpinned its society. Her humble dependence on God and her desire to live constantly in the light of a better world yet to come, ‘whose builder and maker is God', provide a challenge to our frequently materialistic, earthbound outlook ‘Faith Cook's biography of Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is moving, delightful, God-glorifying, and packed with heavenly piety. In it, Bradstreet, America's first published poet, declares that she wrote not ‘to show my skill, but to declare the truth, not to set forth myself, but the glory of God'. She exemplifies how a godly woman can balance standing in the limelight through poetry and politics, while raising eight children and battling illness, all the while maintaining a biblical posture of submission and humility. This stirring biography is great reading for men and women of all ages but is a particular gem for young women looking for godly mentors.' Joel R. Beeke, President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids
