Bright Circle
Five Remarkable Women in the Age of Transcendentalism
Randall Fuller’s history book Bright Circle reveals the often-overlooked women at the heart of Transcendentalism.
Focusing on the lives and works of a handful of extraordinary minds—Mary Moody Emerson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Lydia Jackson Emerson, and Margaret Fuller—this collective biography charts the contributions of women to a distinctly American movement. At the center of the narrative are the communal conversations the women had with each other over a lifetime, spanning marriages, motherhood, and deep tragedy. These are unveiled in segmented chapters rich with primary sources, illustrations, and comprehensive footnotes.
Highlighting the role of Margaret Fuller’s Conversations seminar, which began in 1840 in Elizabeth Peabody’s Boston bookshop, Bright Circle digs behind the men’s names most associated with Transcendentalism to show how these women helped create the phenomena—but also how the movement’s promises of progress ultimately failed its women, whose educations society at large disapproved of.
Fuller’s portrait of Mary Moody Emerson, who kept a journal of her thoughts on God, nature, contemporary intellectual currents, and her “ambitious program of reading,” includes the surprising observation that her nephew, Ralph Waldo Emerson, sought out her writing to use in his sermons, “modeling his prose on hers.” Elizabeth Peabody “was a prodigy” who coined the word transcendentalism in an essay. But it was Margaret Fuller who shook the foundations of Transcendentalism with the force of her seminar and writings, both of which were highly regarded by men and women alike. Her challenge to women of her time was prescient: she “pressed the women to think hard” and, if not happy in their lives, “to imagine better ones.”
Filled with coruscating insights, Bright Circle reintroduces the women who helped create one of America’s most exciting and progressive intellectual movements.
Reviewed by
Peggy Kurkowski
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
