Margaret Fuller was born into a distinguished Puritan family in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, in May 1810. In her adolescent years Margaret was subjected to a full classical education. An intense but disappointed father and a strong-willed and gifted child provided for some psychological pressures in her younger life. She describes this experience in a negative way: "Thus frequently, I was sent to bed several hours too late, with nerves unnaturally stimulated. The consequence was a premature development of the brain, that made me a 'youthful prodigy' by day, and by night a victim of spectral illusions, nightmare and somnambulism..."
Her father died suddenly in 1833 when Margaret was twenty-five. As a result Margaret took over the family. She was forced to discontinue her career ambitions until all of her siblings were established. She took control of family affairs, attempted to fight its battles with her Uncle Abraham as executor of the will, tutored her younger siblings, and prepared the two of her brothers for Harvard. She did, however, have one career opportunity in the area of teaching. Fuller served as an assistant to Bronson Alcott at the Temple School in Boston. Alcott's experimental school was surrounded in controversy. Fuller's accounts of her experiences in the Temple were full of affection, but her health problems and the school's financial difficulties compelled her to leave in 1837.
In March 1839 Fuller moved her family to Jamaica Plain in Boston. By then she could claim membership in the transcendentalist circle. Fuller made a major contribution to the public face of transcendentalism. She served as editor on The Dial: a magazine for literature, philosophy and religion from 1840 to 1842. The Dial was the transcendentalists' most sustained collaborative effort. Without Fuller it would never have started, however, it made little money. In the later 1830s Fuller formed a series of relationships. Emerson wrote that "she wore this circle of friends, when I first knew her, as a necklace of diamonds about her neck." Each of these relationships which involved a man seemed doomed to disappointment and failure. In the autumn of 1840 Emerson retreated from his relationship with Fuller when she demanded that they define and develop their friendship.
To the surprise of many of her friends and her family, she accepted an invitation form Horace Greeley to move to New York and write for his Tribune. By age thirty-six Fuller had achieved a career that brought her fame and respect , and a secure social situation in the liberal wing of reformers in New York.
Italian states in 1847 were divided and, under the terms of the Congress of Vienna, dominated by foreign powers. Liberal hopes for a settlement of Italian political problems were focused on the Papacy. Fuller served as a correspondent in Rome for her paper, The Tribune. Fuller reported to her Tribune readers on the announcement of a representative assembly. In 1848 any prospect of reform fell apart as the Italian states rebelled against the Austrians. Fuller's role shifted subtly from observer to participant. She began an extensive program of research and writing about the events around her. By this time Fuller had found Ossoli, her lover. In addition to Ossoli, her circle of friends was limited in Rome. Marchesa Constanza Arconati Viconti introduced Fuller to many of the leading liberal actors on the political scene. She continued a regular correspondence with her in Rome and at times lent her money.
Of the many Americans in Rome, few became close to Fuller. She mistrusted their superior attitude to the political scene. She contributed an article to the Tribune, describing her feelings, "There are three species. First, the servile American,-a being utterly shallow, thoughtless, worthless. He comes abroad to spend his money and indulge his tastes..." Her feminism remained, but became allied to a form of socialism which saw the liberation of the economically unfortunate.
By early 1848 Fuller's relationship with Ossoli was secure. Her pregnancy threatened not only her life but also her new-found professional independence. She was compelled to leave Rome and found herself in lodgings in Aquila and then in Rieta. In this temporary exile she relied on Ossoli for moral support and for supplying with materials on the Roman struggle. Fuller's immediate reaction to the defeat of the Roman Republic was one of despair. She wrote, "Private hopes of mine are fallen with the hopes of Italy. I have played for a new stake and lost it. Life looks too difficult."
Emerson had been writing to Margaret for almost four years, urging her to come home. The family's embarkation on the ship the USS Elizabeth at Leghorn in May 1850 resulted in tragedy. After a voyage of five weeks, with the ship in the hands of an inexperienced mate, the Elizabeth hit a sand bar off Fire Island. The ship broke up and some gathered on shore, about a hundred yards away. Fuller and her family were not so lucky as they were swept out to sea. Her death was a tragic end to a provocative career.
Works Cited:
Watson, David. Margaret Fuller. New York: Berg Publishers Limited,1988.
Ryan Fons