• Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of His Life (translated by MF into English)
• "The Great Lawsuit: Man vs. Men Woman vs. Women," published in the Dial magazine
• Summer on the Lakes, in 1843
• Woman in the Ninteenth Century and Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition and Duties, of Woman.

On May 23, I’ll follow my annual routine for that day: I’ll wait for the gates to open at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., park in a Visitor spot, then head toward the hill about a quarter-mile on. I’ll take a right on Pyrola Path, pass by McGeorge Bundy’s simple headstone, and climb a small rise to the left. There, I’ll enter the Fuller family lot.

Yes, geodesic-dome inventor Bucky Fuller lies there, his gravestone etched with his most famous invention. He shares a marker with his wife, Anne Hewlett, most appropriate as they died within hours of each other a quarter-century ago. Seeing their headstone alone is worth the visit. But on this day, I’ll pay homage to a different family member, Bucky’s great-aunt, on her 199th birthday.

Read more ...

Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
c/o Stamp Development
U. S. Postal Service
1735 North Lynn St., Suite 5013
Arlington, VA 22209-6432
March 26, 2009

Members of the Committee:

Despite the late notice, we hope you will consider an honorary stamp on behalf of MARGARET FULLER (1810-1850) to celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of her birth in 2010.

Despite a lack of formal education, Fuller became one of the leading minds of her generation.  A founding member of the Transcendentalism movement, she was the first editor of their literary voice, The Dial. Her career as a journalist later brought her to New York, where she became the first woman to be a full-time book critic anywhere in the world. Her connection to Horace Greely’s New York Tribune next brought her to warn-torn Italy, where she became the first American woman to be an overseas correspondent as well as the first to serve during wartime. While overseas, she joined in the cause of Italian revolution.

By this time Fuller had already published Woman in the Nineteenth Century – a book considered by many to be the first major work of feminism in the United States. In it, she asked Americans to redefine gender roles by opening more doors for women. In particular, Fuller promoted access to higher education and political rights as well as employment opportunities. To further her message, she took it upon herself to help women who had been denied access to proper formal education by presenting a series of “Conversations” for women to discuss college-level topics.

Her interest in reform, however, was not wholly focused on women. She was also an ardent abolitionist, referring to the “cancer of slavery.” She also sought reform in prisons and called attention to those who were poverty-stricken. She drew attention to the Native Americans who had so recently been displaced and consider these people an important part of the nation’s heritage. In writing a book on Native Americans, she used the library at Harvard University for research – the first woman allowed to do so.

In the nineteenth century, Fuller was admired by the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, George Eliot and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Awed by her assertiveness, Edgar Allan Poe came to believe that there were three types of people in the world: “Men, women, and Margaret Fuller.” After her tragic death by shipwreck in 1850, Fuller’s later admirers included Susan B. Anthony, who considered her the “precursor of the Women’s Rights agitation” and that she “possessed more influence upon the thoughts of America, than any woman previous to her time.”

For a woman of the nineteenth century, Margaret Fuller was clearly ahead of her time. Using both her voice and her pen, she attempted to redefine the roles of women and earn respect and equality for all Americans. Now, 200 years after the birth of Margaret Fuller, her messages still stand. We, the undersigned, represent only a small faction of people who believe her memory should be honored by the tribute of a federal postage stamp. Thank you for your consideration.

With sincerity and gratitude,
Representatives of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee

Harvard University Library, Open Collections Program
Women Working, 1800-1930.

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/

Woman in the nineteenth century: and kindred papers relating to the sphere, condition and duties, of woman. Margaret Fuller Ossoli; edited by her brother, Arthur B. Fuller, with an introduction by Horace Greeley.

Boston : J. P. Jewett ; Cleveland, Ohio : Jewett Proctor & Worthington ; New York : Sheldon, Lamport, 1855. 428p.

Link: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:777414

Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1884. 323p.

Link: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:700820

Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli). by Julia Ward Howe.

Boston: Roberts Bros., 1890. 298p.

Link: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:769132

Margaret Fuller: a psychological biography. by Katharine Anthony.

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. 223p.

Link: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:648927

Women who have ennobled life. by Lilian Whiting.

Philadelphia: The Union Press, 1915. 260 p

Biographies: Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, 1820-1905; Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888 Fuller, Margaret, 1810-1850; Lyon, Mary, 1797-1849; Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896; Willard, Frances Elizabeth, 1839-1898; Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue , 1830-1908; Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910.

Link: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:700821

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 15, 2010   

Contact: Alida Bailey  W 978/369-3909  |  C 978/399-8229

Exploring the mystery of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller in the year of her bicentennial.
Charles Capper, Boston University professor of history and author of award winning Fuller biography, to speak at Concord's historic Colonial Inn in partnership with The Old Manse.

Concord, MA - 2010 will mark the 200th year since the birth of Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, better known as Margaret Fuller - journalist, women's rights activist and intellectual. Many events, discussions, exhibits and presentations will take place across the US and throughout the year, though her actual birthday is the 23rd of May.

The Old Manse, in conjunction with the Colonial Inn, will host Professor Charles Capper, author of the impressive two -volume biography,  "Margaret Fuller: An American Romantic Life, " as he discusses the
potent connection between Margaret and Nathaniel Hawthorne, especially during his years at The Old Manse (1842-1845).

Prof. Capper will also highlight the particular impact of Fuller's literary criticism in regards to Hawthorne's fiction, and the strangely harsh appraisal which came from Nathaniel after Margaret's dramatic death by shipwreck in 1850.

"What's unique about this talk, in a year of Fuller bicentennial celebrations, is the attention that will be paid to a major literary character within her orbit" says Capper.  "Also, the powerful influence Fuller and Hawthorne had on each other, both public and private."

And yet, one needn't be entirely familiar with Fuller or her works to thoroughly enjoy Capper's discussion on her life.

"This event is for anyone who has an interest in Hawthorne, Fuller, transcendentalism, women's rights, early American literature or all of the above" says Tom Beardsley, Site Director of the Old Manse. " We're looking to reach a diverse crowd of history and literature enthusiasts with this exceptional and entertaining evening."

The event will be held on Thursday, March 4th, at the Colonial Inn, Concord. The $15 ticket price will include a special Fuller/Hawthorne-focused tour of the Manse, a pre-talk social hour with light refreshments and a cash bar, and of course, Capper's lecture.

In addition, every attendee will receive a dining gift certificate from the Colonial Inn, and $10 off a Trustees of Reservations Membership if purchased at the Old Manse before the 30th of March, 2010.

The Old Manse tour will begin at 5:00 pm, lasting for about 45 minutes. This is an optional portion of the event and can be taken on a later date. Beginning at 6:00 pm, attendees can make their way to a private room at the Colonial for socializing and meeting staff from The Old Manse. Capper's talk will begin at 7:00 pm.

To reserve a ticket (space is limited) please contact the Old Manse before the 4th of March at 978-369-3909 or email oldmanse@ttor.org.

For those traveling from out of town, reserve a room at the Colonial Inn by calling 800-370-9200 or book online at www.concordscolonialinn.com

About Charles Capper

Charles Capper came to Boston University in 2001 after teaching fifteen years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His scholarship focuses on American intellectual life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is the author of a two-volume biography, Margaret Fuller: An American Romantic Life (Oxford University Press, 1992-2007), the first volume of which won the Bancroft Prize. He is now working on a book on the Transcendentalists and the birth of Romantic democratic culture in America. He coedited Transient and Permanent: The Transcendentalist Movement in Its Contexts (1999), a collection of new scholarship on his book's central circle. He also coedited The American Intellectual Tradition, 2 vols., 6th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2010). He has received Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Humanities Center, and Charles Warren Center fellowships. He is the coeditor of the journal Modern Intellectual History published by Cambridge University Press.

About the Colonial Inn

Concord's Colonial Inn, which has a long and distinguished history, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The original structure was built in 1716, and the property been operating as a hotel since 1889. Situated on Concord's town common, now known as Monument Square, the Inn is surrounded by many landmarks of our nation's literary and revolutionary history. Contact the Colonial at 800-370-9200 or visit them online at www.concordscolonialinn.com.

About the Old Manse

The Old Manse is a property of the Trustees of Reservations.
"The Trustees of Reservations preserves, for public use and enjoyment, properties of exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value in Massachusetts." 
The Old Manse is located at 269 Monument St., Concord, adjacent to the North Bridge.

For more information, contact the Old Manse at (978) 369-3909
Find us on Facebook as Old Manse
Twitter @OldManseConcord
or visit our web site at: www.oldmanse.org

###

In 2010-2011, the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial offered the Conversations Series, modeled after the "Conversations" that Margaret Fuller offered for women (and later men) in Boston in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Each focused on a different aspect of Fuller’s thinking and took place in a venue connected with her.

Time for conversation followed the presentations. The goal of the series was to engage people in thinking about how the issues that concerned this trailblazing woman relate to our lives today. The traveling display, “Why Margaret Fuller Matters,” was available for viewing at most of the Conversations.

These programs were supported in part by grants from Mass Humanities and the Fund for Unitarian Universalism.

Saturday, May 15, 2010, 2 PM. “Why Margaret Fuller Matters to Young Women Today” at Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, where Fuller was born, with Laurie Crumpacker, Professor of History and Department Chair, Simmons College. Co-sponsored by Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House and the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project.

Sunday, May 16, 2010, 2 PM. "Margaret Fuller in Groton: Shaping a Life, Framing a Mind" at First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, Groton, which is co-sponsoring the event. Panel discussion with Marcia Synnott, Professor of History, University of South Carolina; the Rev. Dr. Dorothy Emerson, co-chair, Margaret Fuller Bicentennial; and Fritz Fleischmann, Professor of English, Babson College.

Saturday, June 19, 2010, 6:30 PM. “Portraying Fuller and Friends on Stage” at The First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist. Gala Reception and Conversation, preceding a performance of the play “The Margaret Ghost.” Conversation with playwright Carole Braverman, director Elizabeth Hunter, and Andrea Humez, who portrays Fuller in the play. $25 ticket includes the Gala, Conversation, and the play. Co-sponsored by Theatre@First.

Sunday, July 18, 2010, 1 PM. “A Celebration of the Life of Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli” at Mount Auburn Cemetery Bigelow Chapel. Reception, Memorial Service, and Wreath-Laying, with appearances by Jessa Piaia as Margaret Fuller, Wendell Refior as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rob Velella as James Freeman Clarke, Dorothy Emerson as Elizabeth Peabody, Richard Smith as Henry David Thoreau, and Deborah Goss as Julia Ward Howe. Co-sponsored by Friends of Mount Auburn. July 19 is the anniversary of Fuller’s death.

Thursday, August 19, 7 PM.  “Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allan Poe: A Conversation” at the Old Manse, in Concord, with Jessa Piaia as Fuller and Rob Velella as Poe. Co-sponsored by the Old Manse. $5 admission.

Thursday, October 21, 2010, 7:30 PM. “Margaret Fuller in Italy” at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Concord. Lecture and slideshow presented by the Rev. Jenny Rankin, based on her travels to Rome to research Margaret Fuller’s experiences in Italy and retrace her steps. Co-sponsored by First Parish and the Transcendentalist Council of First Parish.

Sunday, November 7, 2010, 3 PM. “The Radicalization of Margaret Fuller” at Arlington Street Church, Boston. “'Clouded by Secret Sin': Margaret Fuller and the Darker Side of Woman in the Nineteenth Century;” with John Matteson, Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father; “Margaret Fuller and 1848: Forging a United Radical Tradition” with Daniel McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity at Harvard Divinity School and author of a forthcoming 200 year history of religion and radical politics in the United States, which includes Margaret Fuller’s friendship with Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini; Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie, Moderator. Co-sponsored by Arlington Street Church.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 12 Noon. “‘My own path leads a different course’: Margaret Fuller and her Boston Conversations” at the Boston Athenaeum, with Megan Marshall, Assistant Professor at Emerson College, and author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism.
Co-sponsored by the Boston Athenaeum.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 6 PM. “What Margaret Fuller Did for Feminism” at Max & Dylan’s Restaurant, 13 West Street, Boston, former site of the Peabody Book Room where Fuller held her Conversations. Keynote speaker is Phyllis Cole, Professor at Penn State, Brandywine, and author of Mary Moody Emerson and the Origins of Transcendentalism. Opening remarks by Megan Marshall, Assistant Professor at Emerson College, with an appearance by Jessa Piaia portraying Margaret Fuller, a slide show by Lynn Hyde “Preservation of the Peabody Book Room,” and a review of the 18-month Bicentennial by Dorothy Emerson. Dinner tickets, $50.

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 6, 2010  

Woman in the 21st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage

 The Pierre Menard Gallery 

May 23^rd –June 20^th, 2010 

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 23^rd, 2010, 6:00pm    

Pierre Menard Gallery is pleased to announce Woman in the 21^st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage, a groundbreaking multimedia group exhibition held in conjunction with the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial. 

The exhibition runs from May 23^rd – June 20^th with a reception and celebration of Fuller’s 200^th birthday on Sunday, May 23, at 6:00 pm, including a Mask Tale Performance by Suzanne Benton.  

What does the female prototype of the 21^st century look like?  What are her characteristics?  How will we recognize her presence in our lives?  

Woman in the 21^st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage seeks to answer these questions as it explores the coding and iconography surrounding the re-emergence of the “sacred marriage” (hieros gamos) archetype foreseen by Margaret Fuller in Woman in the Nineteenth Century.  “This exhibition is a culmination of a decade spent chronicling a new movement,” says curator Lisa Paul Streitfeld, a former newspaper critic.  “I want to share with the public my surprise and delight of Margaret Fuller’s genius in placing the “sacred marriage” archetype into the American canon.  She broke through the barriers of time in order to make an empowering mythology real for women.” 

Fuller’s trademarked "Conversations" will be revived in the gallery as a method of chronicling the historicity and living presence of this 21^st century icon: 

                June 05, 4pm; Kate Millett The Sacred Marriage in the American Canon 

                June 11, 7pm; Jessica Lipnack: The Sacred Marriage in the 1960s

                June 12, 4pm; Elinor W. Gadon The Sacred Marriage in Antiquity

                June 19, 4pm; Aldo Tambellini: The Sacred Marriage in the 21^st Century 

There will be a Collaborative Performance Painting at the closing reception on June 20, from 2 – 5 pm. 

The exhibition will include 32 artists covering a full range of media: Carl Apfelschnitt, Josef Astor, Vincent Baldassano, Suzanne Benton, Dianne Bowen, Dove Bradshaw, Laurel Jay Carpenter, Walter M. Crump, Linda DiGusta, Rikki Ducornet, Harlan E. Gruber, Heide Hatry, Selma Karaca, Renee Kahn, Marni Kotak, Yuliya Lanina, Michael Manning, Kate Millett, Richard Move, Francine McGivern, Aaron Olshan, Tanya Ragir, Grace Roselli, Daniel Rothbart, Carolee Schneemann, Nancy Spero, Tatyana Stepanova, Aldo Tambellini, Marina Tsesarskaya, May Wilson, Martha Wilson and Mark Wiener. 

Pierre Menard Gallery                                                                                                                       10 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138                                                                                             617-868-2033                                                                                                                                          pierre@pierremenardgallery                                                                                                                www.pierremenardgallery.com

Gallery Director: Andrea Kalinowski          

12 ARROW STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138

www.pieremenardgallery.com

pierre@pierremenardgallery.com

617.868.2033

Edgar A. Poe and Margaret Fuller: A Conversation

August 19, 7 pm
 
The year is 1845 and Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), portrayed by Jessa Piaia, and Edgar A. Poe (1809-1849), portrayed by Rob Velella, are at the height of their literary careers. The pair exchange gossip, talk about Transcendentalism, and discuss their recently published works, "Woman in the 19th Century" and “The Raven,” at Concord’s Old Manse. Presented as a dramatic reading, the program is part of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Celebration "Conversations Series,” and is appropriate for audiences age 10-adult. Poe and Fuller will converse for about 35 minutes, with an informal Q&A and refreshments to follow. Admission is $5 per person.
 
The premier performance of this new dramatic piece will take place under the Manse tent overlooking the Concord River. Bring your own blanket or lawn chairs, or arrive early with your own picnic to enjoy on the lawn.  Light dessert will be served following the conversation, or visitors may choose to browse our air-conditioned bookstore and save 10 - 50% off during our storewide sale in honor of this event. 
 
Special Margaret Fuller Tours of the Manse will be offered on August 19 at 4, 5, 6 and 8 pm. Tour this 1770’s home while learning about Fuller’s visits with Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne while they lived at The Manse in the 1840’s.  Admission is $8.  Trustees of Reservations Members $4.  Reservations suggested. Call 978.369.3909.

Historic Background and Biography - Writer, intellect, and teacher, Margaret Fuller was the first editor of The Dial, the quarterly Newsletter of the Transcendentalists. After publishing Woman in the 19th Century and Summer on the Lakes in 1844, Horace Greeley hired her as editor and literary critic of his New York Daily Tribune. In 1846, Fuller embarked to Europe as the first female foreign correspondent of a daily newspaper. En route home four years later, she perished at sea in a shipwreck off Fire Island along with her husband Giovanni Ossoli and their son Angelo.  A cenotaph commemorating her accomplishments stands at Mount Auburn Cemetery. 

Jessa Piaia studied performance at London’s Oval House Theatre. Her Women in History Programs depict the accomplishments, struggles, and contributions of American women (http://www.womeninhistoryprograms.com). Since 1985 she performs at educational institutions, museums, libraries, and cultural organizations throughout New England.  Recipient of Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities grants, and from local arts lotteries, her many successes include "Meet Isabella Stewart Gardner: America’s First Patroness of the Arts," and "From Suffragist to Citizen: A Conversation with Susan B. Anthony & Eleanor Roosevelt."

 
Though known today mostly for his tales of the macabre and mystery, Edgar A. Poe was one of the most influential literary critics of his day. His editorial duties for The Southern Literary Messenger, Graham's Magazine, and the Broadway Journal brought him into contact with most of the literary figures of the period. Despite Poe’s popularity, he was never financially successful and died destitute and mysteriously in Baltimore at the age of 40.

Literary historian Rob Velella has lectured at historical sites, libraries, and colleges across the East Coast. Most recently he presented papers at the Poe Studies Association (2009) and the Hawthorne Society (2010), and served as guest curator for "Margaret Fuller: Woman of the Nineteenth Century" at Harvard's Houghton Library and as research associate for "The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and Boston" for the Boston Public Library. As well as performing as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Velella, also maintains the American Literary Blog www.americanliteraryblog.blogspot.com.

For more information, contact The Old Manse at 978.369.3909. Located at 269 Monument Street, Concord, MA. Visit our website www.oldmanse.org. Email oldmanse@ttor.org The Old Manse is a property of the Trustees of Reservations www.thetrustees.org.

This event is part of the Bicentennial’s Conversations Series, supported by a grant from Mass Humanities and modeled after the “Conversations” Margaret Fuller offered for women (and later men) in Boston in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The event is co-sponsored by the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee and is part of a year-long series of events celebrating Margaret Fuller’s life and work.  For a complete list of the other programs, please visit: www.margaretfuller.org.

 
 
CONVERSATION VIDEOS

Over the course of the Bicentennial celebration the Committee, in partnership with Mass Humanities, has hosted five Conversations thus far.  Hopefully many of you were able to attend a few of these interesting and entertaining events.  If you were not able to enjoy them in person, we hope you have enjoyed the descriptions and updates available on our web site, the Mass Humanities web site, or via newsletters, Facebook, and press releases.

Thanks to a recent grant from the Fund For Unitarian Universalism for documentation of the Bicentennial, we are very pleased to announce that we now have 19 video clips available for viewing on www.youtube.com.  The clips were shot at four of the Converstions including: seven clips of  "Why Margaret Fuller Matters," which took place at the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House (her birthplace) on May 15, two clips from  "Margaret Fuller in Groton: Shaping a Life, Framing a Mind," which took place on Sunday May 16 at First Parish in Groton, five clips from the memorial service at Mt. Auburn cemetery on July 18, and finally, five clips from the Conversation between Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allen Poe at the Old Manse in Concord on August 19.   Relive your favorite parts of the program, or enjoy ones you missed, by visiting the official Bicentennial Committee channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FullerBicentenniel. 

The Committee would like to thank cameraman William Reilly for his work filming the event at MFNH, camerawoman Donna Clifford for her work at First Parish in Groton, and camerawoman, and videographer, Josephine Sedgwick for her work filming at Mt. Auburn and the Old Manse, as well as for editing and posting the footage to the Committee's YouTube channel.  Footage taken of our upcoming events will be available on this channel in the future, so consider subscribing.

Good news; there is still more to come!

Save the dates for these upcoming Conversations:

Thursday, October 21, 2010, 7:30 PM, at First Parish In Concord, Unitarian Universalist.  “Margaret Fuller in Italy,” lecture and slides by the Rev. Jenny Rankin, who traveled to Rome to research Margaret Fuller's experiences in Italy and retrace her steps. Co-sponsored by First Parish and the Transcendentalist Council of First Parish. 

Sunday, November 7, 2010, 3 PM, at Arlington Street Church, Boston. “Margaret Fuller’s Network: How Politics, Literature, and Art Crossed in the World Around Her,” with John Matteson, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father and Associate Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY; Daniel McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, and author of forthcoming book featuring Margaret Fuller’s friendship with Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini; with an introduction by the Rev. Dr. Dorothy Emerson, coordinator of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial, and author/editor of Standing Before Us: Unitarian Universalist Women and Social Reform 1776-1936; and moderated by the Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie. Co-sponsored by Arlington Street Church.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 12 noon at the Boston Athenaeum. Program has changed. Check back for details. 

 We plan to film highlights of these events as well, so be sure to visit our YouTube channel if you are unable to attend. 

First Parish Church in Concord Presents
“Margaret Fuller in Italy”
Thursday October 21, 2010 at 7:30 P.M.- 9:00 P.M.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Carla A. Gomez
(978) 502-3113        
margaretfullerpr@gmail.com

Concord, M.A. October 4, 2010 - Reverend Jenny Rankin will present a lecture and slideshow, “Margaret Fuller in Italy” at the First Parish Church in Concord, Unitarian Universalist, 20 Lexington Road, Concord, Ma., on October 21 at 7:30 P.M.  Reverend Rankin traveled to Rome to research Fuller’s experiences in Italy and retrace her steps.  She has created this presentation based on her research.

From the time she was a young girl growing up in Cambridge, Margaret Fuller had dreamed of going to Europe, and especially to Italy.  She had studied the Italian language, knew its literature and poetry, and followed its politics.  Her dream was deferred, however, due to the sudden death of her father.  Margaret took over as “head of household” working to earn money to support her family.  Finally, in August 1846, her dream came true as she sailed from Boston to Liverpool.   She toured England and France before arriving in Italy in the spring of 1847.

“I was lucky to be able to travel to Rome last March during a sabbatical,” says Rev. Rankin.  “I worked at the library of American Academy of Rome which is located across the street from the building that was Garibaldi’s headquarters during the Roman Republic.  Consequently, I was “right on location” to research the Roman Republic in which Margaret was so involved in the spring of 1849.”

Rev. Rankin’s lecture will trace the story of Margaret’s time in Italy, from her arrival as a “tourist” to her settling down in Rome, working as a journalist, falling in love, giving birth and participating in the Revolution which swept Rome in the spring of 1849.  Slides will show 19th century images of Italy and Rome as well as contemporary photos of sites in Rome where Margaret lived and worked.

Rev. Jenny Rankin is a Unitarian Universalist minister at First Parish in Concord, Unitarian Universalist.  She has taught classes on Transcendentalism and Margaret Fuller.
The lecture is free and open to the public.  Donations will be gratefully accepted to support the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial and ongoing classes and discussion groups of the Wright Tavern Center for Spiritual Renewal.  Refreshments will be served following the program.

This event is part of the Bicentennial’s Conversations Series, supported by a grant from Mass Humanities and modeled after the “Conversations” which Margaret Fuller offered for women (and later men) in Boston in the late 1830s and 1840s.  The event is co-sponsored by the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee, First Parish in Concord, and the Transcendentalist Council of First Parish, and is part of a year-long series of events celebrating Margaret Fuller’s life and work.  For a complete list of the other programs, please visit: www.margaretfuller.org.

RENOWNED SCHOLARS CONDUCT A
MARGARET FULLER-STYLE “CONVERSATION”

“THE RADICALIZATION OF MARGARET FULLER”

Sunday November 7 at 3:00 P.M. at Arlington Street Church

Boston, MA, October 25, 2010 – The Margaret Fuller Bicentennial is pleased to continue its Conversations Series with a moderated panel discussion featuring two prominent scholars. The event will take place on Sunday November 7 at 3:00 P.M. at Arlington Street Church, 351 Boylston Street, Boston. The program is modeled after the “Conversations” that Margaret Fuller offered for women (and later men) in Boston from 1839 to 1844. The Conversation Series intends to provoke thought on how the issues that concerned this trailblazing woman might relate to contemporary life. 

John Matteson, Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father,  will present “‘Clouded by Secret Sin’: Margaret Fuller and the Darker Side of Woman in the Nineteenth Century.” This revolutionary treatise is widely considered the first book on women’s rights by an American.

“Most people who think about Fuller tend to regard her principally as an extraordinary intellect,” Matteson observes. “However, she was also the most passionate of the great transcendentalists, and her fascination with forbidden sexuality underlies much of the thinking that went into Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Her arrival in New York coincided with her developing a powerful interest in women of ill fame. Unlike most reformers, who saw prostitutes only as victims to be rescued, Fuller wanted to understand and sympathize with them.”

Daniel McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity at Harvard Divinity School will present “Margaret Fuller and 1848: Forging a United Radical Tradition.” McKanan is the author of the forthcoming 200 year history of religion and radical politics in the United States, which includes Margaret Fuller’s friendship with Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini.

“2010 marks the bicentennial of many leading figures in the Transcendentalist movement,” says McKanan, “but Margaret Fuller is special-both because she was left out of the celebrations one hundred years ago and because she linked spirituality to radical activism in a way that can still be a model for us today.”

The panel will be moderated by Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie. There will be time for conversation and questions following the presentation. The traveling display, “Why Margaret Fuller Matters,” will be on location for viewing. Refreshments will be served.  The program is free and open to the public.

The program is supported by grants from Mass Humanities, the Fund for Unitarian Universalism, and individual donations. It is co-sponsored by the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee and Arlington Street Church.

Boston Athenaeum Presents:
“Margaret Fuller and her Boston Conversations”

 Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 12:00 P.M.

Boston, MA, November 9, 2010 – Megan Marshall will present “‘My Own Path Leads a Different Course’: Margaret Fuller and her Boston Conversations,’”  on Wednesday, December 8th at noon at the Boston Athenaeum, 10 ½ Beacon Street in Boston.  Marshall is Assistant Professor at Emerson College, where she teaches narrative nonfiction writing and the art of archival research in the MFA program.  She is the author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography.  She is currently at work on a biographical study of Margaret Fuller, The Passion of Margaret Fuller: A Biographical Romance to be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

“Margaret Fuller was America's first female public intellectual, the Susan Sontag or Mary McCarthy of her time,” says Marshall.  “But Fuller was more than a cultural critic and opinion maker; she took an active part in what she called the 'era of experiment.'  Her Conversations for women in Boston, which took place just a few blocks from the Athenaeum, were the beginning of a crucial decade that culminated with Fuller's involvement in the Roman revolution of 1848-9.  What were the Conversations like?  How did Fuller arrive at this point of radical commitment?  Our conversation on December 8 will, like Fuller's, ask the 'great questions.'” 

 The program is supported by grants from Mass Humanities, the Fund for Unitarian Universalism, and individual donations.  The Conversation is co-sponsored by the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee and the Boston Athenaeum and is part of a year-long series of events celebrating Fuller’s life and work.  It is free and open to the public. Donations will be gratefully accepted.