Publisher's Synopsis
Margaret Fuller (1810-50) was an American journalist, critic and women's rights advocate whose book 'Woman in the 19th Century' (1845) is considered the first major feminist work in the US. In 1840 she became the first editor of the transcendentalist journal The Dial, later joining the New York Tribune. By the time she was in her 30s she had earned a reputation as the best-read person in New England, of either sex, and was the first woman allowed to use the library at Harvard. In 1846 she travelled to Europe as the Tribune's first female correspondent and soon became involved with the revolutions in Italy, allying herself with Giuseppe Mazzini. She entered a relationship with Giovanni Ossoli with whom she had a son and tragically all three members of the family died in a shipwreck off Fire Island, New York as they were travelling to the US in 1850. Margaret's body was never found. This collection of her writing, edited by her brother, was published posthumously in 1856 and is reprinted from the new edition of 1869.