Margaret Fuller

“Nature,” she says, “seems to delight in varying the arrangements, as if to show that she will be fettered by no rule; and we must admit the same varieties that she admits.”

--Margaret Fuller
from Judith Thurman's An Unfinished Woman





There are 217 Margarets in my family, and not one of them goes by Margaret. This is the only name I know that is given, along with but thou shall be called Clementine. 


Of the Margarets I know, the variations of non-Margaret thou shall be called names are all unique. 
No two non-Margaret names the same.


This is probably due to something that Liz Lemon touched upon, in her despising of St. Paddy's Day, as she wears orange and pranks the parade revelers. 




There can never be too many Margarets.
 


This particular Margaret, I had never heard of until listening to Cheever's biography of Louisa May Alcott.

This Margaret went by Margaret. 






Cheever, in her biography of Alcott, writes about The Conversations.  The Conversations were a thing  (official title that) back in the 1800's that were held by folks who had a lot of ideas and energy but couldn't hold a teaching job and were too antsy to write very much for very long.  Louisa May Alcott's father became king of these: The Conversations.   Because he was kicked out of every school he opened.  And because Emerson eventually stopped financially supporting him. 


To hold a Conversation was to hold a chat about something on which you had a lot of thoughts/ideas/opinions.


It was The Internet, in 1840.


The Conversations spurred other conversations.  (aka The Comments section).


Some folks who held Conversations were paid to do this for a living. 
(Like banner advertising and sponsored posts)


(This post is brought to you by Barry's Tea, though they are not paying me to write about them.  I should look into this.)


Back to Margaret, aka Margaret. 


She is next up on my reading list. 


Here are some Fuller quotes:

Nature provides exceptions to every rule.

The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.

I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.

Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved.

Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.

It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods.

Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.

 
Two persons love in one another the future good which they aid one another to unfold.

Her selfie  (hand drawn due to limiting circumstances.):