#FullerSummer Reading Schedule

In late April, I announced the formation of a Margaret Fuller reading group for the summer, inviting readers to have a #FullerSummer. 😎 I’m happy to report that we had our first Zoom conversation a couple of weeks ago. We discussed Fuller’s first book, Summer on the Lakes, in 1843.

First meeting recap

Seven of us met via Zoom on a Sunday morning to discuss Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Only two of us had some prior experience reading Fuller. Everyone enjoyed parts of the book for different reasons. It seemed that we all enjoyed Fuller’s descriptions of her actual travel experiences — she journeyed from Niagara Falls, NY, to the Great Lakes and the Illinois prairies. I was tickled by her depiction of sleeping on a dining table in a public house in Illinois, surrounded by over a dozen other women sleeping around her. One woman, however, did not sleep because she was a proper British woman who stayed up appropriately dressed, in case a man should walk through the door.

One reader preferred Fuller’s philosophical explorations, her musings about recent works, and her own beliefs. Fuller’s story of Marianna and her depictions of Native Americans intrigued us all. She was traveling at a time when Indigenous peoples of the area were being forcefully displaced from their homelands as hordes of white New Englanders and European immigrants were arriving to homestead, build towns, and make a living in rapidly expanding cities like Chicago.

None of us claimed to like Fuller’s poetry. Conventional 19th-century poetry can be a challenge for modern readers. When Fuller is moved by the beauty of a landscape or a memory is sparked, she often launches into a poem. I tried to view the poetry as a kind of musical theater technique: imagining Fuller wandering around the stage of the prairies and breaking into song when emotions run high, as musicals do. It may have been me amusing myself more than a way to appreciate the poetry, but it got me through (along with some skimming, I must admit).

Reading Schedule

We are reading the new Library of America MARGARET FULLER: COLLECTED WRITINGS, edited by Brigitte Bailey, Noelle A. Baker, and Megan Marshall. Below is the reading schedule for August and September. You can see a more detailed breakdown of the table of contents on the Library of America website.

August

Zoom conversation: Saturday, August 16th, at 10:30 a.m. Central Time.
We will discuss:

• Short published works, New England 1839-1844, pages 341-395 (54 pages)
• Short published works, New York 1844-1846, pages 397-508 (111 pages)
• Preface to Women in the Nineteenth Century (expanded from 1843 essay), pages 191-192 (2 pages)
• Journals 1833-1849, pages 653-713 (60 pages)
• Letters 1817-1848, pages 717-775 (58 pages)
• Total: 285 pages

September

Zoom conversation tentatively scheduled for Saturday, September 27th, at 10:30 a.m. Central Time.

• Short Published Works, Europe 1846-1850, pages 509-605 (96 pages)
• Unpublished works, pages 609-649 (40 pages)
• Letters 1849-1950, pages 776-801 (25 pages)
• Women in the 19th Century, pages 191-337 (146 pages)
• Total: 307 pages

It is not too late to join the group. We organize via an Instagram chat group, but we save the bulk of our conversation for Zoom. Join us for a #FullerSummer! Or feel free to comment here or email me if you are reading Fuller this summer, but prefer not to be part of a group.