Anne Bradstreet dies in Andover, Massachusetts, closing the life of colonial America’s first published female poet and a foundational Puritan voice in literature.
On 16 September 1672, Anne Bradstreet died in Andover (now North Andover), Massachusetts, at about sixty years of age. Her death closed the life of the woman long regarded as the first published female poet of colonial America and a pioneering Puritan voice in literature.
Bradstreet had spent more than four decades in New England, enduring recurrent illness and the physical hardships of colonial settlement while raising eight children and maintaining an active literary life. In her later years she suffered from tuberculosis and debilitating joint disease, conditions that intensified the themes of mortality and spiritual perseverance in her final poems, including "A Weary Pilgrim, Now at Rest."
Although she died before seeing an American edition of her work, Bradstreet’s poetry continued to circulate. In 1678, a posthumous, expanded Boston edition of her writings appeared as Several Poems Compiled with Great Wit and Learning, ensuring that her voice remained present in colonial culture.
The date of her death has become a marker in literary history, delineating the first major phase of American poetry. By the time of her passing, she had already been recognized as the first writer in England’s North American colonies to be published and as a central Puritan figure in American letters. Her work has since been rediscovered and reinterpreted by scholars, feminists, and theologians, who see in her life a complex negotiation of duty, faith, and artistic ambition. The events of 16 September 1672 thus mark not an end but a transition, as Bradstreet’s legacy moved from lived experience into the enduring realm of literary memory.