Margaret Fuller: Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Fuller intended Woman in the Nineteenth Century to reach a wide audience both in the United States and in Europe. She hoped to build upon her reputation as an editor of the Dial and a contributor to the New-York Tribune to attract attention and reviews in the mainstream press. At the same time, Fuller looked for a favorable response from her immediate circle of writers and intellectuals in Boston and New York. She was pleased when her friend and fellow social activist Lydia Maria Child called Fuller “brave” and hailed Woman in the Nineteenth Century as a “bold book” in a review for the New York newspaper Broadway Journal. Fuller also wished to earn the praise of her colleagues on a personal level. She had discussed her views about gender relations in conversation and in print for years before publishing them in her book. She could anticipate the responses of her circle while calculating the controversy it would stir up among the public at large. Fuller hoped that her ideas would change minds over time, even as she withstood criticism of her frankness and supposed radicalism from close friends like Sophia Peabody Hawthorne.