Margaret Fuller. Whetstone of Genius .Autograph letters by Fuller to her brother Richard and to Horace Greeley; also letters by Martineau; Emerson; Longfellow; Hawthorne; and toehrs. All bound into this volume.
FULLER TO HER YOUNGEST BROTHER, ON HIS HARVARD EXAMS AND TO HORACE GREELEY, ON PUBLISHING MATTERS WITH A DOZEN LETTERS BY AMERICAN LITERARY LUMINARIES
Fuller, Margaret. Autograph letter signed to Richard Frederick Fuller, at Concord on a visit to Ralph Waldo Emerson, October 12, no year, ca. 1843; one leaf, two pages.
Richard Frederick Fuller was born in Cambridge in 1824 and died in Wayland, Massachusetts, in 1869. He was the youngest of the Fuller children and Margaret, the most distinguished of the family, was the oldest. Richard graduated from Harvard in 1844. The children were all born in the Fuller home on Cherry Street in Cambridgeport. Margaret writes that she feels that he is doing his best “and whatever be the result of you examination, you know that those who are dearest to you will feel you have ‘done what you could.’” She also remarks that she is feeling unwell.
Fuller, Margaret. Autograph letter signed to Horace Greeley, no date, ca. 1845; concerning publishing: “If you want me to notice the Babbles from the Brarrere (?) will you bring it out, though I do not want to unless desired, as I have some larger fish that interest me more to fry... And the Young Man’s Mentor I should like to see it being interested in the improvement of that class of the community. SMF.” The latter publication was likely The Young Man’s Mentor, on His Entrance Into Life: With Rules for His General Conduct After Leaving School. “The Whole Intended to Assist in Forming and Strengthening His Intellectual and Moral Character.” [W.H. Graham, No. 160 Nassau-Street., 1845].
Fuller, a journalist, critic, and women’s rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement, was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism. Her book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, is considered the first major feminist work in the United States. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she was given a substantial early education by her father, Timothy Fuller. She later had more formal schooling and became a teacher prior to, in 1839, the “conversations” she hosted among women meant to compensate for their lack of access to higher education.
Fuller became the first editor of the transcendentalist journal The Dial in 1840, before joining the staff of the New York Tribune under Horace Greeley in 1844. By the time she was in her 30s, Fuller had earned a reputation as the best-read person in New England, male or female, and became the first woman allowed to use the library at Harvard College. Woman in the Nineteenth Century was published in 1845. A year later, Fuller was sent to Europe for the Tribune as its first female correspondent. She soon became involved with the revolutions in Italy and allied herself with Giuseppe Mazzini. She had a relationship with Giovanni Ossoli, with whom she had a child. All three members of the family died in a shipwreck off Fire Island, New York, as they were traveling to the United States in 1850. Fuller’s body was never recovered.
Letters by Fuller are ridiculously scarce. ABPC auction records record only a single letter.
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These two letters are among fourteen 19th-century missives from literary figures collected and housed in this copy of Margaret Fuller: Whetstone of Genius by Mason Wade (NY: Viking, 1940), each inserted at the appropriate chapter, as follows:
• A. B. Alcott (Amos Bronson Alcott) autograph. n.d. ca. 1885. Note signed by J.A. Pratt. 3.75 x 5 inches. 1p.
This note includes a shaky autograph by Alcott and reads “Mr Alcott’s right hand is paralyzed & he can only scribble with this left... we send the best he can do. J.A. Pratt”. This was likely John Sewall Pratt (1865-1930), Louisa May Alcott’s sister Anna’s son. Amos Bronson Alcott (1799 1888) teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and avoided traditional punishment. He hoped to perfect the human spirit and, to
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