A Bright Circle of Five Forgotten Women with Dr. Randall Fuller
Podcast: In Walks a WomanPublished On: Fri May 01 2026
Description: In his famous 1841 essay, “Self Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To be great is to be misunderstood.” Emerson was a great writer, but to think he accomplished that all by himself would be a significant misunderstanding of how self reliant he really was. In his brilliant study of five female Transcendentalist thinkers, Dr. Randall Fuller pulls back the curtain to show that behind Emerson was his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, who served as mentor and a role model for thinking boldly and writing with a unique voice. Dr. Fuller helps us explore all the questions this revelation naturally prompts: Did Emerson plagiarize his aunt? Did she see it as a collaboration? Did he owe her more credit? And who were the other women in the Transcendentalist movement? One was married to Emerson and the other to Nathaniel Hawthorne, so why don’t we know more about them? Or is that precisely why we don’t know more about them? Why is Concord Massachusetts considered the epicenter of this movement when Margaret Fuller’s weekly conversation circles, attended primarily by women, were held in a bookstore in Boston? Join Sonja and Vanessa as they learn from Dr. Fuller why we probably need to rewrite the story of American Transcendentalism to foreground women like Mary Moody Emerson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Lydia Jackson Emerson, and Margaret Fuller. Along the way, Sonja vaguely hints at her feelings for Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Vanessa fails a few quizzes. REFERENCES:Check out all of Randall Fuller’s books–you’ll love them!From Battlefields Rising: How The Civil War Transformed American Literature, The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation, Emerson's Ghosts: Literature, Politics, and the Making of Americanists, Bright Circle: Five Remarkable Women in the Age of Transcendentalism.
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