Margaret Fuller

A woman of many gifts, Margaret Fuller (1810–50) is most aptly remembered as America's first true feminist. Her 1845 work, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, is regarded as the United States' first feminist publication, a groundbreaking book that helped reshape gender roles for women as well as men. Fuller was one of the few female members of the Transcendentalist movement, and in her brief yet fruitful life, she was an author, editor, literary and...

In this influential book, the prototypical feminist writer of her day addressed a range of issues, from the Woman Question to prostitution and slavery, marriage and employment reform, and the European revolutionary movements of the 1840s. A thought-provoking challenge to contemporary assumptions of male privilege, it is a feminist literature classic.

Fuller was a journalist, critic and women's rights activist associated with the American transcendental movement. She was the first full-time female book reviewer in journalism. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States.