The question of what exactly is literature comes up every time something is written or read. This question forms many of the English classes that students take all around the world, and this question dominates the literary community. So what exactly is literature and why is it so important? Literature is non-factual, with sensuous language, about particular people or events that have significance. Literature is often figurative and appeals to the emotions. During the early colonial times of America, many authors wrote about the things they experienced during that time. Two well-known authors of that period were John Smith and Anne Bradstreet. Smith gave accounts of what he experienced during that period through prose, whereas Anne Bradstreet wrote about some things that went on her life through poetry. Smith’s writings have the purpose of telling what happened and providing the facts, whereas Anne Bradstreet does tell what happened, but she also looks toward the future in her writings. John Smith, the leader of the Jamestown Colony in America, wrote a book named The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles. This book is a factual account of what John Smith encountered on his journeys between Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles. David Read states that “the book is full of second- and third hand information” (Read 429). In Chapter 2: What Happened till the First Supply, Smith tells what happened when the settlers first arrived at Jamestown, and