Margaret Fuller in Europe: 1846-1850

‘Give me truth: cheat me by no illusion’ demanded this intrepid American enthusiast, who, during her early middle age, landed in Europe for the first time. There, writes Joyce Clark Follet, she found love, adventure, hardship and the revolutionary cause she needed.

In August, 1846, Margaret Fuller sailed for Europe. The trip was the fulfilment of a hope she had cherished since childhood when, as a precocious youngster, she read classical literature and, in her vivid imagination, re-enacted its history and befriended its heroes. Now, her friends Marcus and Rebecca Spring invited her to travel with them, and Horace Greeley granted her temporary leave as literary editor of his New York Tribune. Finally, at the age of thirty-seven, she was going to visit the well-springs of the ideas she dealt in as an intellectual and would relay her impressions for publication in the Tribune.

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