Born: May 23 1810, United States
Died: July 19 1850
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli
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Margaret Fuller met her unfortunate end on the Fire Island Seashore on July 19, 1850 as her ship the Elizabeth encountered a storm that ravaged the East coast on her approach to New York Harbor.
Fuller had an unusual childhood. Tutored by her father, Massachusetts Senator Timothy Fuller, she was taught all of his classical Harvard education at a time when higher education was not available to women. By her twenties, Fuller decided it was her public duty to share her knowledge with others.
Educator, social reformer, and writer, Fuller published treatises on many liberal causes: feminism, abolition, and prison reform, and improved conditions for the poor. Fuller also served as editor of America’s first Literary Magazine, The Dial, whose purpose was to bring forth a voice for American Arts and Letters.
Margaret Fuller’s work was recognized by Harvard University when she received the honor of being the first female who was permitted to conduct research there, an unprecedented honor, as women were not then permitted to attend university.
Fuller made a commitment to spread higher education to women. She conducted meetings, called “Conversations,” in which issues of the times were considered in the light of historical and philosophical learning. These meetings afforded women exposure to informed analysis and discussion that gave a forum for female perspectives, and encouraged women’s growth toward self-reliance.
Her groundbreaking treatise, Women in the 19th Century became a foundational inspiration for the Women’s Right’s Movement. Here, Fuller expressed her vision for women’s education and intellectual freedom. Woman in the 19th Century met with overwhelming popularity and has been credited by some with inspiring the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York.
Fuller left New England for New York City upon Horace Greeley’s offer to become Literary Editor for his new national newspaper, the New York Daily Tribune. Here, she lived and wrote until she left for a European tour, which ended in Rome, where she became the first female war correspondent, reporting form the battles of the Italian Revolution of 1848. It was her return voyage to America that ended tragically on the beaches of Fire Island, New York.
The accomplishments of Margaret Fuller served as inspiration for the formation of America’s intellectual and social growth on many issues, the impact of which is still felt today.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Margaret Fuller, Marchioness Ossoli, an American critic and essayist, born at Cambridgeport, Mass. She received a broad education and early felt a deep interest in social questions. In 1835 she began to teach school near Boston, and formed an acquaintance with eminent literary men, including Emerson, Hawthorne and Channing. She possessed an almost irresistible power of winning the intellectual and moral confidence of those with whom she came in contact, and it was more as a conversationalist than as a writer that earned the title of The Priestess of Transcendentalism.
In 1840 she became the editor of The Dial, a poetical and philosophical magazine, and in 1844 she removed to New York, and wrote literary criticisms for the Tribune. Two years later she went to Europe, and resided for some time in Rome where she married the Marquis Ossoli, by whom she had one child.
She took an active part in the Italian struggle for independence and served heroically in the hospitals during the siege of Rome. On May 17, 1850, she sailed for America, but on approaching New York the vessel was wrecked in a fog off Fire Island Beach, and she with her husband and son was drowned.
In a letter to Emerson in 1847 Carlyle said:
“Margaret is an excellent soul; since she went, I have been reading some of her Papers in a new Book we have got; greatly superior to all I knew before; in fact the undeniable utterances of a true heroic mind; altogether unique, so far as I know, among the Writing Women of this generation; rare enough, too, God knows, among the Writing Men. She is very narrow, sometimes; but she is truly high.”
Josephine Lazarus in 1893 in the Century said:
“Despite her Puritan conscience and discipline, Margaret Fuller was perhaps, a bacchante, with something lawless, chaotic, and unregulated. For so complex a nature as hers, what was needed was some large, unifying principle that could coordinate all the facts of life, and bring them into harmony and accord; in other words, some deep spiritual conviction, that inner vision and touch of the divine which opens out horizons always luminous, and deeps where there is forever peace. Lacking this, her ideals were always human, her kingdom was of earth, and she never gained that full mastery and knowledge of the truth which alone can make us free. Nevertheless, her destiny, though incomplete, was a high one, and worthy to be crowned with martyrdom.”
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Margaret Fuller Ossoli, American Authoress, 1810 – 1850 A.D.
Her father, Timothy Fuller, gave much personal attention to her education. She proved a remarkable scholar, for at six years of age she could read Latin and at eight read extensively in Shakespeare, Cervantes, Mololièr. Being much by herself she became melancholy and reserved was given to freaks of passion.
She studied at Groton, Mass., where her eccentricities were a trial to her teachers and friends. Upon her return home she began an extensive course of studies, mastering the German and the chief authors in that language.
In 1840 she became the editor of the Dial, a quarterly journal. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of her associates in the work. Woman in the Nineteenth Century, written by Miss Fuller for this journal, was afterward issued in book form.
In 1944 she became connected with the New York Tribune. Her time was chiefly given to reviews which were subsequently issued as a volume entitled Papers on Art and Literature.
In 1847, having taken up her residence in Rome, she became the wife of a Roman nobleman, the Marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli. During the two following years she saw stirring times in the “eternal city.” In 1848 occurred the revolution and in 1849 the city was besieged by the French. She rendered good service as directress [sic] of one of the hospitals.
In 1850 she set her face toward her native land, accompanied by here husband and little son. The voyage had a tragic ending. The barque was driven ashore on Fire Island beach. While the vessel was going to pieces, Margaret sang little Angelo to sleep and her husband calmed the passengers by prayer. After twelve hours of suspense, some of the passengers were saved, but Ossoli, wife, and child perished.
Hers was a strong character, a marked individuality. Her struggle and solitary habits made her less winsome than some other writers, but her works form a substantial contribution to American Literature.