Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810–1850), one of the most important female intellectuals of the nineteenth century, was a philosopher, journalist, editor, literary critic, and the first American woman to serve as a war correspondent abroad. Fuller was a key figure in the New England Transcendentalist movement and worked closely with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau, in particular as editor of the journal The Dial.
​
The daughter of Massachusetts Congressman Timothy Fuller, Margaret was a child prodigy and was later regarded as the best read person, male or female, in New England. Following her father's death, Margaret supported her mother and younger siblings through her work as a writer, teacher, and editor, as well as by holding a series of subscription "conversations" in Boston which attracted several attendees who later became pivotal in the women's suffrage movement. In 1844, Fuller moved to New York to complete revision of a previous essay into her landmark work Woman in the Nineteenth Century and to work as literary editor for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. During her time on the newspaper's staff, Fuller authored hundreds of articles on literature, art, music, and social issues. In 1846, she departed for Europe as a foreign correspondent for the Tribune, eventually settling in Italy and providing eyewitness accounts of the Italian revolution of 1848. She, her husband, and their toddler son drowned near Fire Island, New York in 1850 following a shipwreck.
​
Emily Lapisardi's portrayal of Margaret Fuller focuses on Woman in the Nineteenth Century as we commemorate the 180th anniversary of its 1845 publication and also provides a fascinating glimpse into Miss Fuller's complex character.