Author

Harriet Martineau(1802–1876)

Harriet Martineau is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, published essays, and journals (1833–1846). 7 distinct works are named, most often in Letter to James F. Clarke, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.

Engagement: AnalyzedReadMentioned
Present in: Letters · Books · Essays · Journals
Documented: 1833–1846

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

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 Harriet Martineau’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
1833Characteristics of the Genius of ScottAttested
“Yesterday I took Hood's and Pinkney's poems and Miss Martineau on Scott into the wood.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Groton 27th July 1833
Same dated sentence documents her taking Martineau's essay on Scott to read.
1836Work not namedAttested
“I find, with delight, that the former has written on the very subjects I wished most to talk out with her”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · 1836
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re257 (Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (sections), Mem-2-03 l.6903-6907, dated 1836; tier A; same passage) — counted once here. Continuing the same sentence, documents her taking up Martineau's writing in place of the prior books.
1837Society in AmericaAttested
“I have read only two English books this summer, Miss Martineau "America," and the "Letters from Palmyra.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Providence 16th August 1837; "I have read only two English books this summer"
"I have read only two English books this summer, Miss Martineau 'America'" is an explicit reading statement.

In Fuller’s words

“The Westminster indeed is petri de talent of late- There is Miss M's crack article too, vigorous eloquent stained with credulity, exaggeration, and man deification as ever. She has placed her abolitionist friends in the most ludicrous light, by her fine portraits; but I suppose they wont mind it.”

"The Martyr Age of the United States," in London and Westminster Review, vol. 32: 1–59 · Letter to Caroline Sturgis · 1839

When Fuller engaged with Harriet Martineau

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed2records

IV. Transcendentalist9records

V. New York2records

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.

Martineau in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

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

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p210

read

“Yesterday I took Hood's and Pinkney's poems and Miss Martineau on Scott into the wood. I passed three or four hours there reading passages from them and conversing with you about it.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Inferred Hudspeth identified this as Harriet Martineau's essay published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine in December 1832 and January 1833, titled 'Characteristics of the Genius of Scott' or 'Achievements of the Genius of Scott.'

1833—

Letter to James F. Clarke

p195

analyzed · read

“I have been quaffing more Martineau sherbet of late with much satisfaction. I believe I told you in my last of her letter to Mr Ware.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Vol. I: 1817-1838. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller says she has been 'quaffing more Martineau sherbet of late with much satisfaction.'

1836—

Letter to Unknown

p242

analyzed · read

“I find, with delight, that the former has written on the very subjects I wished most to talk out with her, and probably I shall receive more from her in this way than by personal intercourse,—for I think more of her character when with her, and am stimulated through my affections.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1837—

Letter to Caroline Sturgis

p296

analyzed · read

“I have read only two English books this summer, Miss Martineau "America," and the "Letters from Palmyra.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1837—

Letter to Harriet Martineau

p307

analyzed · read

“I got the book as soon as it came out,—long before I received the copy endeared by your handwriting,—and devoted myself to reading it.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

1838—

Letter to William H. Channing

p354

analyzed · read

“I am not without my dreams and hopes as to the education of women.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.

Inferred Fuller dismisses her own educational plans as "not at all of the Martineau class," indicating familiarity with Harriet Martineau's published work on women's social and educational condition.

1839—

Letter to Caroline Sturgis

p47

analyzed · read

“The Westminster indeed is petri de talent of late- There is Miss M's crack article too, vigorous eloquent stained with credulity, exaggeration, and man deification as ever.”

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

1840—

Journal 1840

p24

analyzed · readManuscript page

“Deerbrook. Standpoint of modern fiction.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1840." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (85); Box 5 (85).

1842—

Journal Fragments, 1842

p33

mentioned

“I see Bulwer, Miss Martineau & Shakspeare are truer to nature than I could have supposed.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal Fragments, 1842." Margaret Fuller Family Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

1844—

Letter to Anna Loring

p255

mentioned

“let me know what Miss Martineau writes and copy her address that I may write to her from here. I wish to join my voice to the jubilee of her friends.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

Inferred Fuller asks Anna Loring what Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) is 'writing' and wants to 'join my voice to the jubilee of her friends' — the 'jubilee' likely refers to Martineau's remarkable recovery from illness through mesmerism in 1844, which caused a great sensation in Britain.

1845—

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

p151

read

“Another interesting sign of the time is the influence exercised by two women. Miss Martineau and Miss Barrett, from their sick rooms.”

Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.

Inferred Named explicitly as 'Miss Martineau' writing from a sick room; general influence mentioned. The 'sick room' reference points to Martineau's Life in the Sick Room (1844) or her chronic illness.

1846—

Letter to Richard F. Fuller

p229

read

“Will you also call on L. C. Bolles in Washington St. and ask if a remittance was made to Miss Martineau on her book "Life in the Sick Room.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.

1837—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p254

analyzed · read

“Immediately after reading Miss Martineau's book on America, Margaret felt bound, in honour, to write her a letter”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p219

analyzed · read

“I have, for the time, laid aside De Stael and Bacon, for Martineau and Southey.”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.

Inferred In this passage, Fuller indicates a temporary shift in her reading focus from de Staël and Bacon to Harriet Martineau. While the specific title of Martineau's work is not directly stated, the archival editors infer Fuller engaged with her writings, possibly Society in America or Illustrations of Political Economy, given the context of her intellectual development around 1836.