Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Margaret Fuller
-
Standard Name: Fuller, Margaret
Birth Name: Sarah Margaret Fuller
Married Name: Sarah Margaret Ossoli
Used Form: Margaret Fuller Ossoli
Titled: Sarah Margaret, Marchesa d'Ossoli
An important social and cultural critic in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, MF
published in a variety of forms, including travel literature, translations from German (notably Goethe
, about whom she also published critical work), poetry, letters, and journalism. She was first editor of The Dial, journal of the Transcendental Club, and the earliest influential US woman journalist. She is perhaps best remembered today for Woman in the Nineteenth Century, described by one critic as the first American book defining the place of women in society, and offering a coherent alternative to their position.
Rosenthal, Bernard, and Margaret Fuller. “Introduction”. Woman in the Nineteenth Century, W. W. Norton, p. v - ix.
A recent surge of interest has produced (as well as John Matteson
's and Eve LaPlante
's studies of LAM and her father and her mother) a monograph by Harriet Reisin
, 2009; a study...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
EBB
met American feminist Margaret Fuller
, by then Margaret Fuller Ossoli, a year before the latter's death.
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography. Grafton.
239-40
Hewlett, Dorothy. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Cassell.
243
Health
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
EBB
's health began to decline at about this time. It was worsened by such non-medical factors as sorrow over the death of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
(which roused her memories of older but nearer losses)...
Friends, Associates
Lydia Maria Child
She enjoyed an early friendship with Margaret Fuller
, who wrote before she was out of her teens that the future LMC
's conversation is charming,—she brings all her power to bear upon it; her...
Friends, Associates
Camilla Crosland
CC
's friends and acquaintances were varying and numerous. In her youth the radical politician John Cartwright
was a neighbour. Her literary work as an adult led to the formation of a number of lasting...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Camilla Crosland
In the preface she declares that she sought to simply set before the young women of the present day examples of wives and mothers who have done their duty under difficulties and temptations; and if...
Publishing
George Eliot
The Leader carried GE
's important short article Margaret Fuller
and Mary Wollstonecraft, another trenchant examination of women's position in society.
Ashton, Rosemary. George Eliot: A Life. Hamish Hamilton.
143
Occupation
Ralph Waldo Emerson
RWE
studied theology at Harvard
but eventually left the priesthood when he came to doubt the sacraments. He travelled to Europe and met Carlyle
, Coleridge
, and Wordsworth
. Upon his return to America...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fletcher
Hamilton, herself a conservative, set about de-demonizing EF
's political reputation. She had good success in persuading her friends that Mrs Fletcher was not the ferocious Democrat she had been represented, and that she neither...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Sarah Josepha Hale
In keeping with her dedication, SJH
represents women writers as inhabiting very much a man's world. Her entry on Margaret Fuller
, for instance, goes into detail on Fuller's father but does not mention her...
Textual Production
Julia Ward Howe
Having already published a biography of Margaret Fuller
in 1883, JWH
followed it with an introduction to Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller: 1845-1846, which appeared in print this year.
Howe, Julia Ward. Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli). Roberts Bros.
Prefatory note
Howe, Julia Ward, and Margaret Fuller. “Introduction”. Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller: 1845-1846, D. Appleton, p. v - xii.
v-xii
Friends, Associates
Julia Ward Howe
In her early twenties, Howe became acquainted with the prominent women's-rights activist Margaret Fuller
, who was a journalist and editor of The Dial. Fuller was one of the first to recognize Howe's talent...
Irish Leaders and Martyrs, an interesting study in intellectual leadership, touches on the power of writing such as ballads, but does not discuss any women. American Women is an insightful study of historical and...
Cultural formation
Mary Ann Kelty
MAK
thought that the existential angst she suffered during her childhood was unique until she read Margaret Fuller
's Memoirs.
Kelty, Mary Ann. Reminiscences of Thought and Feeling. W. Pickering.
134
She felt her unhappiness as a child and young woman was good for...
Timeline
22 March 1832: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe died at Weimar...
Chisholm, Hugh, editor. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Cambridge University Press.
8 September 1836: The Transcendental Club (also known as the...
Writing climate item
8 September 1836
The Transcendental Club
(also known as the Hedge Club
and the Symposium
) was formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts; it brought together various thinkers who were at the forefront of Transcendentalism.
21 March 1853: The thirty-year-old Matthew Arnold addressed...
Writing climate item
21 March 1853
The thirty-year-old Matthew Arnold
addressed to Arthur Hugh Clough
a classically misogynist letterabout women writers, their works and their looks.
Texts
Howe, Julia Ward, and Margaret Fuller. “Introduction”. Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller: 1845-1846, D. Appleton, 1903, p. v - xii.
Rosenthal, Bernard, and Margaret Fuller. “Introduction”. Woman in the Nineteenth Century, W. W. Norton, 1971, p. v - ix.
Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. C. C. Little and James Brown; C. S. Francis, 1844.
Fuller, Margaret. The Essential Margaret Fuller. Editor Steele, Jeffrey, Rutgers University Press, 1995.
Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Clarke, 1845.
Fuller, Margaret, and Bernard Rosenthal. Woman in the Nineteeth Century. W. W. Norton, 1971.
