New-York tribune., 1921-02-16
Books u.yv.s& By B,...

Katharine Anthony's Margaret Fuller,
published by Harcourt, Brace & Howe,
is biography in new and fascinating
form. "a psychological biography"
Miss Anthony calls it and she takes
advantage of the theories of Freud
and jung to reveal new facts about the
life of a woman long dead by the
process of submitting we'll known ma
terial to the psychoanalytic test. This
Is an engrossing game. There Is some
thing about it quite suggestive of the
contrast between Sherlock Holmes and
the more dull-witted detectives of
Scotland Yard. Holmes, you remem-
Der, could come into a room after ell
the members of the force had paved
the evidence and interpret something
new from the cigar ash on the table
which had been to thent just cigar ash,
but was to Holmes convincing evidence
that the crime had been committed by
red-hairedd man, six feet in height,
born in Kent-;cky and an enrolled
Other bi)graphers were content to
record the fact that Margaret Fuller
was q nervous child who received all
her early education at home from her
father There they paused, and it is
just here that Miss Anthony leaps In
to explain the exact emotional relation
between father and daughter which
simmered about in Margaret's sub
consciousness and contributed to the
convulsions of her early school days.
1t is fascinating to watch the skilled
biographer reveal all sorts of facts
about Margaret Fuller Of which she
herself had not the ghost of a notion.
We can't say that the theory of the
biographer Is always convincing, al
though we must admit that her case is
full and logical at every turn. To us
1t Is just a little too logical. There is
so much proof that we are rather in
clined to believe that the theory is not
altogether so. It Is only fair to admit
that Margaret seems to have been
Freudian herself long before there was
Freud. Again and again her own OBJ
servations, quick, intuitiys leaps, coin
eide almost exactly with theories
worked out later by much more diff
cult and rational processes. Nathaniel
Hawthorne, also seems to have had
soma conception of the unconscious
quite consistent with tho most modern
theorists, for he records a conyersa-
ton between himself and Margaret Full
Ter In which they talked about "the
experiences of early childhood, whose
influence remains upon tho character
after the recollection Of them has
passed away."
Margaret Fuller, laboratory spect-
men, is an interesting study; Margaret
Fuller, feminist, an inspiring figure In
American history; but most of all our
interest is captured by that portion of
tho book which deals with Margaret
Fuller, literary critic of The New
York Tribune. She wrote three criti-
cal articles week. which appeared on
the first page of the paper, and aimee
her day newspaper reviewing has gone
back in other respects than the mere
process of burying itself more deeply
within the paper. Opinions about books
seem to have been more exciting and
provocative in the days Of Margaret
Fuller and Horace Greeley. At any
rate, one or the other wrote an article
in The Tribune which inspired libel
suit by James Fentmorc Cooper in
which he won verdict of $500 Moth
ing like that happens to-day. Cnce we
managed to incite an actor into a law
suit. but the only sign of recognition
which we ever obtain from belabor-
ing an author Ia telephone message