Sailing to the New World at the age of eighteen, Anne Bradstreet was one of the first Puritan refugees to leave the shores of Britain. In search of freedom to worship without persecution, she struggled with chronic illness as she raised a family in the harsh environment face by the early settlers. A gifted writer, Anne frequently recorded her experiences in poetry. When a collection of her poems were printed in London in 1650, she became the first published poet in America. World recognition was followed by catastrophe when her house burnt down, an event she describes in what has become her most famous poem. Faith Cook's classic biography traces Anne’s early years through to her life in America and reveals a believer who lived-out an authentic faith in the face of the gritty realities of everyday life.