In a nutshell: A small group will read & discuss parts of or all of the Library of America’s new MARGARET FULLER: COLLECTED WRITINGS this summer, from June 20 to September 22, 2025. Join us!

Margaret who?

Margaret Fuller was a 19^th Century intellectual and feminist rock star with world-wide renown, yet most people today have not heard of her. She was a teacher, translator, speaker, journalist, Transcendentalist, editor, and writer. Fuller taught women how to think critically and inspired suffragists. She was the first American to write a book about women’s rights, the first female foreign correspondent, and the first war correspondent (she reported on the Italian Revolution).

I first came across Margaret Fuller in a graduate seminar in the mid-1990s. I was excited to learn about her and also angry that I had not heard about this amazing person in grade school, high school, or college. 

That semester, I read her first book, Summer on the Lakes, in 1843, which is based on a trip Fuller took to Illinois in 1843. I recall being both fascinated and frustrated by the book. It is not a straightforward memoir or travelog. Fuller includes a variety of genres and what seem like diversions. Her writing is often intense, detailed, and not light fare. I had always intended to read more Fuller, but never got around to it. 

Until now.

Earlier this year, The Library of America published their highly anticipated, MARGARET FULLER: COLLECTED WRITINGS, edited by Brigitte Bailey, Noelle A. Baker, and Megan Marshall. This monumental publication was a sign it is time to read more Margaret.

The Collection contains Fuller’s major works (Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 and Women in the 19^th Century), articles, reviews, unpublished writings, journals, and letters.

If you’d like to join a small group committed to reading some and/or maybe all 929 pages of this book, please leave a comment with your Instagram handle. I’ll add you to our Instagram group when it is up and running.

#FullerSummer

Please use the hashtag #FullerSummer if you post about your reading on social media so that others may find you.

If you are not on Instagram, I will post reading schedule updates here. I may write reading response posts but make no promises at this time. (I am trying to get a grip on my propensity for biting off more than I can chew when it comes to reading and writing. That said, I also want to get back to regularly writing about what I read.)

When?

The reading group will be in session from June 20 to September 22, 2025. 

The group will decide together how we’d like to schedule our reading and how often we’ll have Instagram check-ins and Zoom conversations. This project will be slow and the readings spaced out over the summer months. Folks are welcome to read what they want/have time for, so jumping in here and there is part of the plan. You may, of course, read any edition of Fuller’s work.

Learn more about Fuller

If you’d like to learn more about Margaret Fuller before committing, check out the Margaret Fuller Society’s website or Megan Marshall’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Margaret Fuller: A New American Life. If you prefer historical fiction, try Allison Pataki’s novel, Finding Margaret Fuller.*

I had the enormous pleasure of interviewing both Pataki and Marshall on the Book Cougars podcast:

• Allison Pataki, Episode 204 for her novel, Finding Margaret Fuller
• Megan Marshall, Episode 227 primarily for her new memoir, After Lives, but we also talked about the new LOA Fuller collection which she co-edited.

And of course, dip into some of Fuller’s own writing. Project Gutenberg has several of her works available for free.

More to come!

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* I am a member of the Margaret Fuller Society but this reading group is not sponsored or sanctioned by the organization. The links to these books are affiliate links to Bookshop.org