Phillis Wheatley, Complete Writings

Destined to become the first published woman of African descent, Phillis Wheatley was born around 1753. She was taken by the slave ship Phillisto Boston in 1761 and bought by John and Susanna Wheatley. The Wheatleys provided her with an education that was unusual for a woman of the time and astonishing for a slave. Phillis published her first poem in 1767, around the age of fourteen, and won much public attention and considerable international fame before she was twenty years old. This new Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by Vincent Carretta, along with supplementary material, including the work of Wheatley's contemporaries, Lucy Terry Prince, Jupiter Hammon, and Francis Williams.