Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Margaret Fuller" - New World

From New World Encyclopedia
m
(rewording)
Line 3: Line 3:
 
[[Image:Margaret Fuller engraving.jpg|thumb|250px|Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Marchioness Ossoli.]]
 
[[Image:Margaret Fuller engraving.jpg|thumb|250px|Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Marchioness Ossoli.]]
  
'''Sarah Margaret Fuller''' (May 23, 1810 - June 19, 1850) was a journalist, critic and women's rights activist.
+
'''(Sarah) Margaret Fuller''' (May 23, 1810 - June 19, 1850) was a teacher, author, editor, critc, and women's rights activist whose contributions to literature and mid-nineteenth century reform movements were significant and ingenious.
  
Fuller was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (The house in which she was born is still standing and now occupied by an active community outreach program.) Her father, Timothy Fuller, a lawyer, gave her a vigorous [[classical education]] which was testing enough to have a lasting effect on her health. In 1836 she taught at the Temple School in Boston, Massachusetts and from 1837 to 1839 taught in Providence, Rhode Island.
+
Margaret Fuller was the first born to Margarett Crane and Timothy Fuller, Jr. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 23, 1810. Margaret's mother was raised in a Unitarian family in the small town of Canton,Massachusetts. Margaret's father was a very gifted and learned man who attended Harvard University. While there he traded his Calvanistic upbringing for the Unitarian religon and views. Timothy was a devout man and followed the Unitarian rationalism faithfully throughout his life. He often questioned and reasoned and challenged the religious leaders of the time, but he never deviated from his new-found faith. Timothy and his wife established themselves with the Cambridgeport Parish Unitarian Church where he served on the church council for some time.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
Timothy and Margaret began their family and also a life in politics. Timothy, who was an accomplished lawyer and a member of the Republican party, was elected to the Massachussetts Senate in 1813, just three years after his first child was born. He served in the senate for a total of four terms. After his long service with the United States Congress, he had had his fill of politics and decided to retire and focus on his first love, that of writing. Margarett often went unnoticed behind her husbands prominent political life. She was a diligent wife, but she also maintained her individualism. She was vibrant and vivacious, and an avid reader who possessed great intelligence. She was an affectionate mother and was definately the softer of the two in terms of discipline and education. As Margaret was the fitst born, her father, who had desperately wanted a son to teach and educate, decided he would put just as much effort into educating his daughter, a deviation from the norm in those days. Thus, at a very young age Margaret underwent a bootcamp type of training and education. She became fluent in German and Latin and well-versed in other languages. She was forced to read for hours at a time. Soon a younger sister was born into the family, but she passed away, and again, Margaret remained the focal point of her father's efforts. In all, Timothy and Margarett were blessed with eight children, with six living into adulthood. Margaret, always a writer, kept journals at the time. In one she recorded thoughts about her education, "I was put at once under discipline of considerable severity, and, at the same time, had a more than ordinarily high standard presented to me." Often her feelings were expressed in the form of intense nightmares and insomnia. The education was harrowing, but Margaret excelled at all subjects, including English grammar, mathematics, languages, music, history, and science. Ovbiously, for a child so young, Margaret was afflicted with a great deal of stress from her father's semi-fanatical expectations. Little would her father expect that Margaret would exchange her health for her education. For the rest of her adult life she suffered severely from migrane headaches caused by intense reading in low-light, as well as extremely poor eyesight.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
When Margaret was 26 years old she became acquainted with Bronson Alcott (father to Louisa May Alcott). Bronson was delighted with her education, her quick wit, and her desire to teach. He hired her immediately to teach at the [[Temple School]] he had just opened in Boston. His methods proved to be very controversial and the school closed after a short time.  
 +
 
 +
In 1836 she taught at the Temple School in Boston, Massachusetts and from 1837 to 1839 taught in Providence, Rhode Island.
  
 
Fuller became friends with [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and was subsequently associated with [[transcendentalism]]. She edited the transcendentalist journal, ''[[The Dial]]'' for the first two years of its existence from 1840 to 1842. When she joined [[Horace Greeley]]'s ''[[New York Tribune]]'' as literary critic in 1844, she became the first female journalist to work on the staff of a major newspaper.  
 
Fuller became friends with [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and was subsequently associated with [[transcendentalism]]. She edited the transcendentalist journal, ''[[The Dial]]'' for the first two years of its existence from 1840 to 1842. When she joined [[Horace Greeley]]'s ''[[New York Tribune]]'' as literary critic in 1844, she became the first female journalist to work on the staff of a major newspaper.  

Revision as of 16:58, 10 July 2006

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Marchioness Ossoli.

(Sarah) Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 - June 19, 1850) was a teacher, author, editor, critc, and women's rights activist whose contributions to literature and mid-nineteenth century reform movements were significant and ingenious.

Margaret Fuller was the first born to Margarett Crane and Timothy Fuller, Jr. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 23, 1810. Margaret's mother was raised in a Unitarian family in the small town of Canton,Massachusetts. Margaret's father was a very gifted and learned man who attended Harvard University. While there he traded his Calvanistic upbringing for the Unitarian religon and views. Timothy was a devout man and followed the Unitarian rationalism faithfully throughout his life. He often questioned and reasoned and challenged the religious leaders of the time, but he never deviated from his new-found faith. Timothy and his wife established themselves with the Cambridgeport Parish Unitarian Church where he served on the church council for some time.


Timothy and Margaret began their family and also a life in politics. Timothy, who was an accomplished lawyer and a member of the Republican party, was elected to the Massachussetts Senate in 1813, just three years after his first child was born. He served in the senate for a total of four terms. After his long service with the United States Congress, he had had his fill of politics and decided to retire and focus on his first love, that of writing. Margarett often went unnoticed behind her husbands prominent political life. She was a diligent wife, but she also maintained her individualism. She was vibrant and vivacious, and an avid reader who possessed great intelligence. She was an affectionate mother and was definately the softer of the two in terms of discipline and education. As Margaret was the fitst born, her father, who had desperately wanted a son to teach and educate, decided he would put just as much effort into educating his daughter, a deviation from the norm in those days. Thus, at a very young age Margaret underwent a bootcamp type of training and education. She became fluent in German and Latin and well-versed in other languages. She was forced to read for hours at a time. Soon a younger sister was born into the family, but she passed away, and again, Margaret remained the focal point of her father's efforts. In all, Timothy and Margarett were blessed with eight children, with six living into adulthood. Margaret, always a writer, kept journals at the time. In one she recorded thoughts about her education, "I was put at once under discipline of considerable severity, and, at the same time, had a more than ordinarily high standard presented to me." Often her feelings were expressed in the form of intense nightmares and insomnia. The education was harrowing, but Margaret excelled at all subjects, including English grammar, mathematics, languages, music, history, and science. Ovbiously, for a child so young, Margaret was afflicted with a great deal of stress from her father's semi-fanatical expectations. Little would her father expect that Margaret would exchange her health for her education. For the rest of her adult life she suffered severely from migrane headaches caused by intense reading in low-light, as well as extremely poor eyesight.


When Margaret was 26 years old she became acquainted with Bronson Alcott (father to Louisa May Alcott). Bronson was delighted with her education, her quick wit, and her desire to teach. He hired her immediately to teach at the Temple School he had just opened in Boston. His methods proved to be very controversial and the school closed after a short time.

In 1836 she taught at the Temple School in Boston, Massachusetts and from 1837 to 1839 taught in Providence, Rhode Island.

Fuller became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and was subsequently associated with transcendentalism. She edited the transcendentalist journal, The Dial for the first two years of its existence from 1840 to 1842. When she joined Horace Greeley's New York Tribune as literary critic in 1844, she became the first female journalist to work on the staff of a major newspaper.

In the mid-1840s she organized discussion groups of women in which a variety of subjects, such as art, education and women's rights, were debated. A number of significant figures in the women's rights movement attended these "conversations". Ideas brought up in these discussions were developed in Fuller's major work, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), which argues for the independence of women.

She was sent to Europe by the New York Tribune as a foreign correspondent, and there interviewed many prominent writers including George Sand and Thomas Carlyle—whom she found disappointing, due to his reactionary politics amongst other things. In Italy she met the Italian revolutionary Giovanni Ossoli, marrying in 1847; she later had a son by him. The couple supported Giuseppe Mazzini's revolution for the establishment of a Roman Republic in 1849 - he fought in the struggle while she volunteered to work in a supporting hospital.

Fuller, her husband, and her son all died when a boat transporting them back to America from Italy sank off Fire Island, New York. Henry David Thoreau traveled to New York in an effort to recover her body and writings, but neither were found. Among the articles lost was Fuller's manuscript on the history of the Roman Republic. Many of her writings were collected together by her brother Arthur as At Home and Abroad (1856) and Life Without and Life Within (1858). Her memorial is in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.


External links

Wikiquote-logo-en.png
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.