1822—
Letter to Timothy Fuller
p122analyzed · read
“I have read Bracebridge Hall lately.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Author
Washington Irving(1783–1859)
Washington Irving is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, published essays, and manuscripts (1822–1847). 3 distinct works are named, most often in Summer on the Lakes, in 1843, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.
Read for the 1843 western tour
Named among the books Fuller consulted for her western journey, and discussed in Summer on the Lakes, in 1843.
- Engagement
- AnalyzedReadMentioned
- Present in
- Letters · Books · Essays · Manuscripts
- Documented
- 1822–1847
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 Washington Irving’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
- Dated
- 1822Bracebridge HallAttested
“I have read Bracebridge Hall lately. I was much disappointed in it, it seems to me to possess very little incident or originality of idea”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Cambridge. 22d Dec. 1822
Explicit first-person statement 'I have read Bracebridge Hall lately'.
In Fuller’s words
“Albert reading aloud to me in W. Irving. By dint of explaining to him the classical and other poetical allusions with which each page is fraught _ I came to perceive what a high mental enjoyment I have often without thinking of it what a literary range I must take to appreciate such a writer as Irving. Twenty thoughts a page, at least, apart from the immediate purport. - and fine authors innumerable recalled to the mind.”
When Fuller engaged with Washington Irving
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Irving in Fuller’s reading world
Documentary evidence
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
1830—
Letter to James F. Clarke
p169read
“Suppose you write an imaginary tour round your sick chamber in the Irving method full of sweet fancyings of its tenants, the reveries of the furniture”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Inferred Fuller suggests Clarke write "an imaginary tour round your sick chamber in the Irving method," referring to Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall, likely the "Family Reliques" chapter, though Tales of a Traveller is also possible.
1843—
Summer on the Lakes, in 1843
analyzed · read
“Irving's books I also read, some for the first, some for the second time, with increased interest, now that I was to meet such people as he received his materials from.”
Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.
1846—
Papers on Literature and Art
p145analyzed · read
“Hawthorne, the best writer of the day, in a similar range with Irving, only touching more points and discerning far more deeply.”
Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
1846—
American Literature.
“American Literature.”mentioned
“Irving, a genial and fair nature, just what he ought to be, and would have been, at any time of the world, has drawn the scenes amid which his youth was spent in their primitive lineaments, with all the charms of his graceful jocund humor.”
Fuller, Margaret. "American Literature." New-York Daily Tribune, 23 September 1846. · 23 September 1846
1847—
Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . VII.
“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . VII.”mentioned
“At Stratford I handled, too, the poker used to such good purpose by Geoffrey Crayon.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . VII." New-York Daily Tribune, 5 January 1847. · 5 January 1847
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
n.d.—
A Drive Through the Country: A Dialogue on Love, Duty, and Taste
p7“The shingle palaces, celebrated by Irving's wit, were far more appropriate, for they at least gave free [illegible] to the winds of heaven when the thermometer stood at 95 in the shade.”
Fuller, Margaret. "A Drive Through the Country: A Dialogue on Love, Duty, and Taste." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Inferred Fuller names 'Irving's wit' explicitly but does not name a specific work. Title left as inferred because no specific title is given.
n.d.—
Notes on Books, Children, and Faith
p6analyzed · readManuscript page
“Albert reading aloud to me in W. Irving.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Books, Children, and Faith." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Inferred Irving' explicitly but does not specify which of Irving's works Albert is reading aloud. Given the context (classical and poetical allusions 'with which each page is fraught'), the work is likely The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819–1820) or Bracebridge Hall (1822), both of which are densely allusive.