Margaret Fuller’s Reading Worlds

Author

George Barrell Cheever(1807–1890)

George Barrell Cheever is documented in Fuller’s letters and published essays (1845–1846). 3 distinct works are named, most often in ‘Darkness Visible.’, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.

Engagement
AnalyzedReadMentioned
Present in
Letters · Essays
Documented
1845–1846
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 →

In Fuller’s words

“We have lately had published here books of travel very minute about Switzerland by Mr. Cheever who saw a great deal, but mixed it all up with sectarianism and books, and by Mr. Headley...”
Wanderings of a Pilgrim in the Shadow of Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau Alp · Letter to James Nathan · 1845

When Fuller engaged with George Barrell Cheever

I. Childhood
II. Adolescence
III. Self-Directed
IV. Transcendentalist
V. New York
VI. Europe3records
✦. Memoirs (1852)
1810
1820
1832
1836
1844
1846
1850

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Cheever in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.

1845—

Letter to James Nathan

p171
analyzed · read
“We have lately had published here books of travel very minute about Switzerland by Mr. Cheever who saw a great deal, but mixed it all up with sectarianism and books, and by Mr. Headley...”

Also reprinted in The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. IV: 1845-1847. Counted once, at its first appearance.

Fuller, Margaret. Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845-1846. With an introduction by Julia Ward Howe. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903.

Inferred Although Fuller explicitly names the author 'Mr. Cheever,' the specific title is inferred from the subject matter related to Switzerland and the 1845 publication date.

1846—

‘Darkness Visible.’

“‘Darkness Visible.’”
analyzed · read6 selected passages
“WE have had this book before us for several weeks, but the task of reading it has been so repulsive that we have been obliged to get through it by short stages”

Also reprinted in Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Counted once, at its first appearance.

“The views of Messrs. Lewis and Cheever are the opposite of all this. We need not state them; they are sufficiently indicated in each page of their own.”
“Mr. or Dr. Cheever has a mind of better quality and more real life, but that life all tainted by the heat and bitterness of his spirit.”
“It is pitiful to see him in his preface to a work (Vestiges of Creation) which attempts to give a philosophical view of the facts of science”
“The answer was found in a commission to Rev. Dr. Cheever to prepare a short prelude, which, being every where played before the piece itself”
“Messrs. Lewis and Cheever profess to occupy the position of defence; surely never was one sustained so in the spirit of offence.”

Fuller, Margaret. "‘Darkness Visible.’." New-York Daily Tribune, 4 March 1846.