Author

James Macpherson(1736–1796)Inferred

James Macpherson is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, and published essays (1839–1846). 3 distinct works are named, most often in New-York Daily Tribune, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “read”.

Engagement: ReadMentioned
Present in: Letters · Books · Essays
Documented: 1839–1846

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

“I saw nothing more, except such apparitions as visited Ossian, on the hill-side, when he went out by night, and struck the bosky shield, and called to him the spirits of the heroes, and the white-armed maids, with their blue eyes of grief. To me, too, came those visionary shapes.”

Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . V. · 1846

When Fuller engaged with James Macpherson

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist1record

V. New York1record

VI. Europe2records

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

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

Macpherson in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

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

1839—

Letter to Jane F. Tuckerman

p76

read

“The first night we had a storm, and the wind roared and wailed round the house that Ossianic poetry of which you hear so many strains.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

Inferred Fuller invokes "Ossianic poetry" as a qualitative descriptor for the wind and sea at Nahant, presupposing her correspondent's familiarity with Macpherson's pseudo-Gaelic epic—a style characterized by wild, mournful, elemental language. The phrase "of which you hear so many strains" suggests the two had previously discussed Ossian.

1845—

The Raven and Other Poems.

“The Raven and Other Poems.”

mentioned

“the league of Truth-tellers, few, but each of them mighty as Fingal or any other hero of the sort.”

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

Fuller, Margaret. "The Raven and Other Poems." New-York Daily Tribune, 26 November 1845. · 26 November 1845

1846—

New-York Daily Tribune

“Napoleon and his Marshals” · 1845

read

“Now we know that Napoleon loved to read Ossian, and could appreciate the beauty of tenderness”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p112

Inferred Fuller explicitly names "Ossian" in her discussion of Napoleon's reading tastes. This refers to the Ossianic poetry of James Macpherson, initially published as Fragments of Ancient Poetry (1760), Fingal (1762), and Temora (1763), and later collected as The Works of Ossian (1765). Napoleon's admiration for Ossian was historically well-known.

1846—

Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . V.

“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . V.”

mentioned

“I saw nothing more, except such apparitions as visited Ossian, on the hill-side, when he went out by night, and struck the bosky shield, and called to him the spirits of the heroes, and the white-armed maids, with their blue eyes of grief.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . V." New-York Daily Tribune, 13 November 1846. · 13 November 1846