Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-06-21
RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

MARGARET FULLER OssoII By Thomas Went
worth Higginson. Boston: Houghton, Mitfiin
& Co. Sacramento: c. S, Houghton. 81 ..
This is one of the American Men of
Letters Series" The volume at the outset
explains why Mr. HigginsOn is its author
it was because of long-entertained desire
to write a new memoir of Margaret Fuller !;
sufficient reason, certainly. He explains,
also. from what sources of information he
drew his facts, and they were certainly rich
in number and in the product his research
welded Margaret Fuller OssOli was
drowned thirty-fOur years ago, leaving be-
hind her a memory that has been a blessing
to mankind She certainly was one of the
most remarkable women of the century. A
biography of her appeared two years
after her tragic death, being the joint work
of Ralph Waldo Emerson, W. II. Charming
and J. F. Clarke. Mrs. CrOsland wrote OF
her in Memorable Women i'll 1854, Mrs.
Dali treated of her character in 1850, R. W.
GIiswold in 1919, Sarah Jane Hale III 1858,
Colonel Higginson in 1868. Julia Ward
Howe wrote her life in 1888, which we no
ticed in these columns, and numerous
essayists have made her life, literary traits
and example the subject of their best eff
forts In short, no woman of the age has
been the theme for such noble literary
| work or the object of more sincere
biographical and critical writing 1t
is not what Margaret Fuller wrote
| that gave her memory so large a
place in the American heart. She is never
cIassed among great writers :; her literary
work was not commandingly pre-eminent.
| But all she did in that way indicated the
great soul and the intellectual power be-
| hind which was capable of the Hottest
work. 1t was in the circle of acquaintance
l.,
| There she enraptured the hearers with the
strength and brilliancy of her converse
tionaI powers She was probably the most
aggressive. original and forcible thinker of
ali her sex in the century. She drew to
her. by the powers of her intellect and the
maryelousness OF her originality, the best
minds of her time, and they were of one
accord in paying tribute to her genius.
She was to these the ideal of true woman
hood the incarnation of domestic virtues
and womanly strength in her affections,
devotion, unselfShneSs and courage. These,
| rather than her literary career, made Mar
| garet Fuller the center of so large circle
of friends and extended her influence over
so broad field. She translated at an early
day books from the German and French,
and her Specimens of Foreign Literature
extended into fifteen volumes. Her edit
ing of Eckermann's Conversations with
Goethe An admirable work-was all she
was able to do toward herplan of preparing
Life of Goethe" Then followed in
1912. Correspondence of Fraulein Gun
derode and Bettine Won Armin; sum
mer on the Lakes 1S43 Woman in the
Nineteenth Century" 1874 Collected
Works" edited by Arthur b. Fuller and
Horace Greeley, 1855. These last books in
cluded the mass of her essays on woman,
art literature, the drama, poems, criti-
cisms. correspondence of the New York
Tribune, etc. Colonel Higginson has done
excellent work in presenting the volume
under notice. 1t is probably the COM
nietest memoir of Madame Ossoli that has
ever been published. 1t is evident from
the outset that the book is the product OF a
work of love for the noble traits OF a
woman whose intellect was so command