How to Write: A Pocket Manual…
Containing Previously Unpublished Excerpts
From The Writings Of Margaret Fuller
(Fuller, Margaret). How To Write: A Pocket Manual of Composition and Letter-Writing; Embracing Hints on Penmanship and the Choicer of Writing Materials; Practical Rules for Literary Composition in General, and Epistolary and Newspaper Writing and Proof-Correcting in Particular; and Directions for Writing Letters of Business, Relationship, Friendship, and Love, Illustrated by Numerous Examples...New York: Fowler and Wells, (1857).
8vo.; early ownership inscription on front endpaper; few pages lightly darkened towards edges; blue cloth, stamped in gilt and blind; covers lightly worn, rubbed at spine.
First, and presumably only, edition of this odd composition manual which prints for the first time three letters by Margaret Fuller to members of her family, as well as missives by Lydia Maria Child and other important radical figures. Fowler and Wells published Fuller’s Literature and Art, a posthumous collection. In How To Write, the publishers apparently took advantage of Fuller’s recent death (she disappeared at sea in 1850) to print some new material by her. The three letters are featured as examples of excellent writing: “Margaret Fuller Ossoli to her Sister, Rome, June 19th, 1849”; “Margaret Fuller Ossoli to her Brother, Rome, January 19, 1849”; and the moving letter of May 14, 1850, titled by Fuller’s publishers, simply, “Margaret Fuller Ossoli’s last Letter,” which reads, in full:
Dear Mother: I will believe I shall be welcome with my treasures–my husband and my child. For me, I long so much to see you! Should any thing hinder our meeting upon the earth, think of your daughter as one who always wished, at least, to do her duty, and who always cherished you, according as her mind opened to discover excellence. Give dear love, too, to my brothers; and first, to my eldest, faithful friend, Eugene; a sister’s love to Ellen; love to all my kind, good aunts, and to my dear cousin E. God bless them. I hope we shall be able to pass some time together, yet, in this world. But if God decrees otherwise–here and hereafter, my dearest mother, Your loving child, Margaret.
(#4654)
Print Inquire
