THE MOST IMPORTANT WOMAN OF THE
TRANSCENDENTIALIST MOVEMENT

THE AUTHOR OF THE FIRST FEMINIST BOOK IN THE UNITED STATES

MARGARET FULLER

FULLER, SARAH MARGARET. (1810-1850) Journalist, women’s rights activist, considered the most important woman in the Transcendentalist movement; she 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.  Exceedingly-rare, almost unobtainable, and highly desirable Autograph Letter Signed “S. M. Fuller”.  One page, quarto. “Thursday”, [no month or year, no place indicated]. Very fine condition. To the transcendentalist and music critic John Sullivan Dwight, in Boston. Fuller writes:

 

“My Dear Mr. Dwight,

I enclose the sum I mainly attempted to rob from the musical public under cloak of your reputation as I shall not be able to hear your lecture as it is the last eve, my sister Fanny proposes with us before us before a separation like[ly] to be a long one, but trust you will give your audience as much pleasure as you did last time. The expressions of obligation that I heard were numerous, if there is a concert or rehearsal at the Odeon on Sat, eve[ning], will it be convenient for you a escort Caroline and myself? / With regard, S. M . Fuller….”

 

For those of you who don’t know her story:  Born Sarah Margaret Fuller 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. In 1839, she began overseeing what she called “conversations”: discussions among women meant to compensate for their lack of access to higher education. She 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. Her seminal work, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, was published in 1845. A year later, she 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.

JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT (1813 – 1893). Was an American classical music critic, transcendentalist, school director, and minister. He is considered America’s first influential music critic. He befriended Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, and others of a similarly progressive mindset. Dwight resided at the socialist/utopian community of Brook Farm, where he learned about journalism and publishing while writing for ‘The Harbinger’.

Her letters are, in our experience, and in a review of sales records,  are rarer than those of Poe or Melville, by a good factor.  In our nearly 50 years of offering some of the finest literary and historical material, we have had only 4 letters/ signatures from her pen.  Just an absolutely rare opportunity to acquire a literary unicorn!   One of our: “The Best of the Best.”™

 

$22,500.00