Margaret Fuller: A Powerful Public Voice - Part Two
Excerpted from the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial display, written and designed by Bonnie Hurd Smith.
Foundations
Sarah Margaret Fuller, born on May 23, 1810 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the oldest child of Timothy Fuller, a Harvard-educatedattorney, and Margarett Crane Fuller. With the death of an infantsister, young Margaret was an only child for several years and thecenter of her father's attention in particular.
Timothy Fullerplanned a rigorous course of study for his daughter. "To excel in allthings should be your constant aim," he told her. "Mediocrity isobscurity."
By the time Margaret was 3 1/2 years old, Timothywas teaching her how to read and write; at 4 1/2, he taught herarithmetic; just before the age of 5, she learned English and Latingrammar. Even when Timothy Fuller was elected to the U.S. Congress andspent many months in Washington, D.C., he directed Margaret's studiesby mail. Margaret also read voraciously: political philosophy, greatEuropean authors and playwrights, ancient and recent history, travel,biography, and even novels -- much to her father's consternation.
WhenTimothy Fuller was at home, father and daughter conversed in theevenings about what she was learning. "In the process," biographer Joan von Mehrenexplains, "Margaret developed a well-stored mind, a remarkable facilitywith the spoken word and foreign languages, and the exhilarating sensethat she was very alive under tension."
Margaret's fatherstressed analytical skills, logic, and "the correct use of language,"according to von Mehren. Timothy Fuller's goal was to have his daughterdevelop "a secure and favored place in an ordered republican society"that was consistent with his Enlightenment values.
Atage 9, Margaret attended the Cambridge Port Private Grammar School("The Port School") whose master was a Harvard graduate. By age 10, shehad command of the standard classics in translation and was beginningto learn French. She was known as the "smart one," according toclassmate Oliver Wendell Holmes.The following year, Margaret attended Dr. Park's Boston Lyceum forYoung Ladies where she was ridiculed for her "country ways." She wasnow studying Italian, French, and geography, and attending dancingschool.
Fearing their daughter's potential "unmarriageability,"the Fullers sent Margaret for a brief time to Susan Prescott's moretraditional Young Ladies' Seminary in rural Groton, Massachusetts.But she soon returned to The Port School to study Greek and Latin.Eventually, at the age of 15 and with her father's assistance, MargaretFuller created her own course of self-study, which included lessonswith the author Lydia Maria Francis (later, Child).
Margaretbecame friends with a group of young Harvard students who were caughtup in a heady time of intellectual, literary, and theological activityat the college. German philosophy, literature, and poetry were the"craze," and many of these young men (James Freeman Clarke, Frederic Henry Hedge, William Ellery Channing)were preparing for leadership roles in the Unitarian church. Margaretborrowed books from them, and invited them home for lively exchanges ofideas.
Like her Harvard friends, Margaret discovered the German philosopher and literary giant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, regarded as a leading thinker by American Transcendentalists.In 1833, when the Fuller family moved to a farm in Groton,Massachusetts, Margaret felt terribly isolated from Cambridge andBoston, but she viewed her time there as her "graduate school" andbegan to study German in earnest.
Note: Some of these links take you to Wikipedia which provides helpful overviews, but you should always double check the facts.
Foundations
Sarah Margaret Fuller, born on May 23, 1810 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the oldest child of Timothy Fuller, a Harvard-educatedattorney, and Margarett Crane Fuller. With the death of an infantsister, young Margaret was an only child for several years and thecenter of her father's attention in particular.
Timothy Fullerplanned a rigorous course of study for his daughter. "To excel in allthings should be your constant aim," he told her. "Mediocrity isobscurity."
By the time Margaret was 3 1/2 years old, Timothywas teaching her how to read and write; at 4 1/2, he taught herarithmetic; just before the age of 5, she learned English and Latingrammar. Even when Timothy Fuller was elected to the U.S. Congress andspent many months in Washington, D.C., he directed Margaret's studiesby mail. Margaret also read voraciously: political philosophy, greatEuropean authors and playwrights, ancient and recent history, travel,biography, and even novels -- much to her father's consternation.
WhenTimothy Fuller was at home, father and daughter conversed in theevenings about what she was learning. "In the process," biographer Joan von Mehrenexplains, "Margaret developed a well-stored mind, a remarkable facilitywith the spoken word and foreign languages, and the exhilarating sensethat she was very alive under tension."
Margaret's fatherstressed analytical skills, logic, and "the correct use of language,"according to von Mehren. Timothy Fuller's goal was to have his daughterdevelop "a secure and favored place in an ordered republican society"that was consistent with his Enlightenment values.
Atage 9, Margaret attended the Cambridge Port Private Grammar School("The Port School") whose master was a Harvard graduate. By age 10, shehad command of the standard classics in translation and was beginningto learn French. She was known as the "smart one," according toclassmate Oliver Wendell Holmes.The following year, Margaret attended Dr. Park's Boston Lyceum forYoung Ladies where she was ridiculed for her "country ways." She wasnow studying Italian, French, and geography, and attending dancingschool.
Fearing their daughter's potential "unmarriageability,"the Fullers sent Margaret for a brief time to Susan Prescott's moretraditional Young Ladies' Seminary in rural Groton, Massachusetts.But she soon returned to The Port School to study Greek and Latin.Eventually, at the age of 15 and with her father's assistance, MargaretFuller created her own course of self-study, which included lessonswith the author Lydia Maria Francis (later, Child).
Margaretbecame friends with a group of young Harvard students who were caughtup in a heady time of intellectual, literary, and theological activityat the college. German philosophy, literature, and poetry were the"craze," and many of these young men (James Freeman Clarke, Frederic Henry Hedge, William Ellery Channing)were preparing for leadership roles in the Unitarian church. Margaretborrowed books from them, and invited them home for lively exchanges ofideas.
Like her Harvard friends, Margaret discovered the German philosopher and literary giant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, regarded as a leading thinker by American Transcendentalists.In 1833, when the Fuller family moved to a farm in Groton,Massachusetts, Margaret felt terribly isolated from Cambridge andBoston, but she viewed her time there as her "graduate school" andbegan to study German in earnest.
Note: Some of these links take you to Wikipedia which provides helpful overviews, but you should always double check the facts.
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