Dear Fellow Reader,

Happy Spring!  I know I am a bit ahead of myself by saying that, but I want to push the season. I want to be warm, work in the yard, and stop wearing 3 shirts at a time. (Give me a break. I seem to run cold.)

Back in February of 2022, I reviewed a book by Allison Pataki. The name of the book was The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post. (https://cecooney.com/?s=Allison+Pataki) I enjoyed the book and when I saw a new book by Allison Pataki, I was eager to read it. I had heard of Marjorie Post when I read the book about her but with the new book, Finding Margaret Fuller, I had never heard of Margaret Fuller.

Margaret Fuller was a real person. Let me stop here and suggest that you not do what I did. I looked up Margaret Fuller and read about her. It was a mistake. It affected my reading of the book. Finding out about her from the book would have been much better. I still enjoyed the book, but it would have been better if I didn’t know the story of her life.

With that as a proviso, let me give you a little bit about Margaret Fuller’s life. Margaret Fuller was a beautiful, educated woman. When the book opens, she meets Ralph Waldo Emerson for the first time.

“The Most Well-Read Woman in America,” he says with a flourish of his long-finger hands, then he sets his gaze back on me.” That’s what they call you if I’m not mistaken?”

“Person,” I reply, my voice quiet but certainly audible.

Emerson tilts his head, eyeing me with a bemused expression. “Pardon?”

“Person,” I state again, this time just slightly louder. “What I’ve been called is ‘the Most Well-Read Person in America.’”

Margaret Fuller’s father was her teacher. He taught her Latin, Greek, and everything he would have taught a son. At the time, daughters were not taught the same as sons. Daughters were educated to be ladies while sons were educated. As a result, Margaret could translate Goethe from German and speak several languages. She was taught to think and analyze what she read and heard.

Margaret Fuller was part of the Transcendentalist movement which started in 1836. She was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. She went on to meet Edgar Allen Poe, George Sand, Fredrick Chopin, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

The story is interesting and timeless. Margaret Fuller’s beliefs are still pertinent these days. She believed in equality. She believed in freedom and respect for all people.

Yes, I recommend this book. I enjoyed reading it. She was an important person in her time and she has been forgotten. Her history is fascinating. BUT DON’T RUIN IT AND READ ABOUT HER BEFORE READING THE BOOK.

I was given a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks for reading!