Margaret Fuller Ossoli

Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Dodo Press) Margaret Fuller Ossoli

Sarah Margaret nee Fuller Ossoli (1810-1850) was a journalist, critic and women's rights activist. She was the first full-time female book reviewer in journalism, becoming the first editor of the Transcendental publication The Dial in 1840 before joining the staff of the New York Tribune in 1844. She was sent to Europe in 1846 by the Tribune, specifically England and Italy, as its first female foreign correspondent. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845) is considered the first major feminist work in the United States. It began as an essay, The Great Lawsuit, written in serial form for The Dial. Ossoli was an advocate of women's rights and, in particular, women's education and the right to employment. She also encouraged many other reforms in society, including prison reform and the emancipation of slaves in the United States. Soon after her death, many of her writings were collected and published. In 1852, Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli was published, though much of the work was censored or reworded. Her brother Arthur also later published At Home and Abroad (1856) and Life Without and Life Within (1858).