“Catlin's book is far the best.”
Inferred Fuller names Catlin explicitly and provides an extended commentary ? judging him inaccurate on facts but 'true to the spirit of the scene.'
Author
George Catlin(1796–1872)
George Catlin is documented in Fuller’s books, journals, reading notebooks, and manuscripts (1843). 2 distinct works are named, most often in Summer on the Lakes, in 1843, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.
Read while writing Summer on the Lakes
Named among the books Fuller consulted for her western journey, and discussed in Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. The Harvard College Library ledger dates the loan to the winter after the journey, while the book was being written.
Harvard College Library loan
- 1844 Jan 1·Catlin's N. A. Indians.shelf 2002
Charged out of Gore Hall on the card of Richard Frederick Fuller, Margaret's brother and then a Harvard senior; women could not borrow in their own name. The loan falls after the western journey, while Summer on the Lakes was being written. Household access, not proof of her reading — not counted toward engagements. The full ledger →
- Engagement
- ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
- Present in
- Books · Journals · Notebooks · Manuscripts
- Documented
- 1843
Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Confirmed reading
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had George Catlin’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
- undatedLetters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American IndiansAttested
“Catlin's book is far the best. I was afterwards assured by those acquainted with the regions he describes, that he is not to be depended on for the accuracy of his facts”
Summer on the Lakes
Part of Fuller's first-person catalog of books she read during her western trip (context anchored by explicit 'I read' statements in adjoining sentences).
In Fuller’s words
“From Catlin on the Indians… I like Catlin very much. He is a genuine a rational enthusiast, genial with large views of manliness & religion, a good deal of fun and playfulness and a deep fond feeling of the beauty in nature. - His book is full of vulgarisms _ of Americanisms _ lay for lie, laid for lay… Reader! did you ever imagine that in the middle of a man's life, there could be a thought, or a feeling so new to him, as to throw him instantly back to infancy…”
When Fuller engaged with George Catlin
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Catlin in Fuller’s reading world
Documentary evidence
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
1843—
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843
analyzed · read3 selected passages
“Catlin gives anecdotes of the grief of a chief for the loss of a daughter, and the princely gifts he offers in exchange for her portrait, worthy not merely of European, but of Troubadour sentiment.”
Inferred Fuller names Catlin explicitly and summarizes an anecdote from his work about a chief's grief for a lost daughter.
“Catlin says this is intended, to afford a convenient means by which to take away the scalp; for they consider it a great disgrace to have the foeman neglect this”
Inferred Catlin cited multiple times by name as an authority: on the meaning of the scalp-lock, on Indian talkativeness vs. apparent taciturnity, on Osceola's death, and in the summary list 'Catlin's noble Mandan chief'.
Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
n.d.—
Journal 1837–1843
p. 70readManuscript page
“Speak of Catlin's dances”
Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1837–1843." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086; Box 5.
Inferred Fuller plans to 'Speak of Catlin's dances' in Summer on the Lakes — referring to George Catlin's famous depictions of Indian dances in Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, 2 vols. (London: published by the author, 1841). Catlin's book included extensive descriptions and illustrations of dances of the Plains Indians.
n.d.—
Notebook 1842
p43excerpted · analyzed · quoted · readManuscript page
“Catlin vol 2d / Catlin reads the newspaper in Paradise!! / 92 / [...] Death of Osceola 221.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notebook 1842." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (90); Box 6.
n.d.—
Notes on Rhine Ballads and Catlin
p4–p19analyzed · quoted · readManuscript page
“From Catlin on the Indians… I like Catlin very much.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Rhine Ballads and Catlin." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
The date of the manuscript is undated, but Catlin's book was published in 1841.