LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to her publisher, Mr. [John] Wiley.
Fuller, [Sarah] M[argaret]. Autograph Letter Signed, to her Publisher (July 7, 1846). 73 Middagh Street, Brooklyn: To Mr. [John] Wiley, 7 July 1846. Autograph letter signed “S.M. Fuller” pressing her publisher for proofs.
Single sheet folded to 4-7/8 x 7-1/2,” off-white writing paper with embossed seal at inner leaf; addressed in author’s hand to her publisher at rear leaf; mild creasing (where folded); evidence of mounting at reverse; torn at the seal. Very good in custom-made case.
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), author, critic, teacher, Transcendalist and revolutionary, disappointed her father by not having been a boy. She compensated for this failing by proving herself a formidable intellect—capacious, brilliant, unconventional. Although she approached Emerson as her mentor, their friendship soon became that of equals, as did her friendship with James Freeman Clarke, Bronson Alcott, W.H. Channing. Fuller influenced their thinking and with her presence “crystallized the Transcendental movement” (NAW). For two years she edited the movement’s journal, the DIAL, publishing in its July, 1843 issue her essay, “Man vs. Men. Woman vs. Women.” A scarce year and a half later, the essay, considerably expanded, appeared as Woman In The Nineteenth Century. Editor Horace Greeley asked Fuller to join the New York Tribune; there she established herself as an influential and thoughtful critic writing on major authors of the day. One authority emphasizes “[h]er critical writing, a portion of which was collected in Papers On Literature And Art...stands second only to Poe’s in erecting a serious standard of practical criticism in the United States.” It is in reference to this influential title that Margaret Fuller writes to her publisher. Greeley had appointed her the Tribune’s foreign correspondent; due to sail August 1st, Fuller finds she must prompt Wiley: “Will Mr. Wiley direct the Printers to make more haste? — At the rate proofs are sent, I cannot get more than half through before I leave. Respectfully, S.M. Fuller.” The letter certainly reflects the care Fuller expended on editorial chores as such correcting proofs and her concern that the new book not be delayed by her impending departure. Margaret Fuller did sail on August 1st; four years later she returned with her husband and infant daughter only to perish in a shipwreck off of Long Island. Margaret Fuller autograph material rarely comes on the market; albeit brief, the note is eloquent as to the writer’s frame of mind as she prepares Papers On Literature And Art for publication and herself for her voyage to Europe.
The Feminist Companion, pp. 402-403.
NAW I, pp. 678-682.
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