Margaret Fuller, New York, and the Politics of Transcendentalism

The HloomiTljrdale in l&n From A Psychiatric Milestone: Bloomingdale ,-,ell"" llc.rv . 1821-I921 (New York: SocieiY ofthe New York Hospital, 1921), facing 2. Margaret Fuller, New York, and the Politics of Transcendentalism DAVID M. ROBINSON "You are intellect, I am life." So Fuller wrote Emerson inJuly 1844,1 on the verge of the most crucial transformation of her intellectual and em.otionallife-the beginning of a career as a journalist for the ]V'ew- York DaiJy Tribune that brought her a new independence and national prominence, quickening a process through which she redefined herself, and came to be regarded historically, as a social reformer. Comingjust before her move from Boston to New York, this statement can be thought of as one of Fuller's most important expressions ofself-understanding . She wrote Emerson to congratulate him on the achievement of his forthcoming Ess~s: Second Series, which she would later review in the Tribune with glowing praise and frank criticism. But her letter makes it clear that the move she contemplated was, for her, an exchange of intellect's restricted realm for the more challenging realm of life. She grants Emerson the identity he had sought in their relationship, "intellect," but also suggests her recognition of that identity's limits.2 This transition was, in some senses, fulfilled in Fuller's review of Essqys: Second Series the following December in the Tribune. Her assessment of Emerson's achievement signals not only a turn in her career hut also an important moment in the development of transcendentalism, the movement with which both she and Emerson were closely associated. Elllerson is of course widely acknowledged to be the founder of transcendentalism, but in retrospect, he himself described Fuller as its central ESQ I V. 52 14TH QUARTER I2006 271 DAVID M. ROBINSON figure. There was, he recalled, no "concert of doctrinaires to establish certain opinions," but instead only a collection oflikeminded friends. "Margaret with her radiant genius & fiery heart was perhaps the real centre that drew so many & so vari0us individuals to a seeming union."3 For decades, Emerson's recollection was not taken with due seriousness in the historiography of transcendentalism" Perhaps as a result, Fuller's relationship to transcendentalism has proven problematic in modern Fuller studies. To claim Fuller as a transcendentalist has seemed a subtle diminishment ofher achievement, making her a satellite or subordinate of Emerson. Moreover, her political orientation has appeared to be in tension with Emerson's seeming aloofness. 1\1any contemporaIY readers have felt that Fuller's complete recognition could only be achieved independently of Emerson, or by lmeans of an emphasis on eventual evolution away from the transcendentalist context, a perspective that renders the movem.ent essentially static. We understand Fuller's development m.ore completely, however, when we recognize that she emerged as a leading figure in a lTIOVement that was itself evolving and dynamic-and that was developing a decidedly social and political emphasis in the 1840s.4 The phrase "the politics of transcendentalism" in my title thus has a dual purpose. This essay win how Fuller's work in NewYork to give transcendentalism a distinctly in the 1840s, her individual change as of the leftward evolution of the movement. Such recognition forces us to see critical assessments of Fuller that emphasize a dichotomy between transcendentalism and progressive politics as misleading. 5 Fuller the shifting nature of transcendentalism which had moved from the arena of to that of the 1840s and was p.,.,,",p'~r......... of moral to define "the proper role of the scholar in a In need reforrrll." Fuller remained committed to and and and v...-...-.......11. ..... "' ...JLJ.. But her concerns for women's f>n. ...,.,"'·YI:''tA concerns for the Native 272 FULLER AND THE POLITICS OF TRANSCENDENTAUSM in part through Emerson's influence, she had come to a deeper recognition of the imperative of antislavery. 6 In her new careel ' in New York, Fuller continued to weigh and negotiate the sometimes conflicting demands of art and politics, but she found both opportunities and encouragement to deepen her commitment to social analysis and political reform. Her gradual emergence as a voice for reform is best seen as an indicator of the evolution of...