Allison Pataki explores the life of a fascinating, trailblazing, iconic Transcendentalist
Allison Pataki is known for her best-selling historical novels about overlooked but fascinating “leading ladies” like Marjorie Merriweather Post (the cereal heiress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who, incidentally, built Mar-A-Lago), Desiree Clary (secret lover of Napoleon Bonaparte), and Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (the Lady Diana of her era).
This time, she delves into the remarkable life of Cambridge-born Margaret Fuller (1810-50), the feminist and public intellectual known in her time as the most well-read person in America. Edgar Allan Poe (not a fan) proclaimed that “humanity is divided into men, women, and Margaret Fuller.” Much of Pataki’s research took place in Concord, as explored by Pataki in “Finding Margaret Fuller,” which debuted earlier this week. We spoke with Pataki from her New York home about Fuller’s “brave, bold, and colorful life” ahead of a Saturday reading at An Unlikely Story in Plainville.
Q. While still a college student at Yale, you embarked on a career in journalism. Why did you switch from journalism to fiction, and specifically, to novels about lesser-known female historical figures?
A. I worked for ABC News in college and directly afterwards but soon realized that my true passion was for deeper, longer narratives. I studied English and history . . . and was always a voracious questioner and storyteller. For me, history provides the juiciest raw material to tell the saga of human nature. My first book was about Benedict Arnold’s wife . . . Peggy Shippen, who I found to be the most interesting character in the whole tale.
I’m drawn to historical fiction because it’s both educational and entertaining. History provides the bones of a story; I put on the flesh. Writing fiction lets me put the reader in the room and tell how things happened and how it felt. I like the immersive storytelling experience and the way fiction can make a historical figure come to life and walk on her own.
Q. How do you choose your subjects? You will most likely spend several years in their “company,” so it’s an important decision. How do you embark upon your research?
A. If all goes well, it’s a relationship for life. So, first, I must fall deeply in love with both the leading lady and her era. After that, my work begins with the deep dive into the historical record, soaking up as much historical context and detail as I can, reading primary sources, biographies, the subject’s own work. I work on really being there. I become obsessed.
Q. What would you like today’s readers to take away from your book about Margaret Fuller?
A. Margaret Fuller was so many things, including many “firsts” — first woman admitted to study in Harvard’s library, first female foreign correspondent, first female editor of a major intellectual journal (The Dial), noted author, editor, feminist, activist, journalist, Transcendentalist. She was a courageous and brilliant woman who made an enormous contribution to American thought, letters, language, culture, and society. She lived life on her own terms and has not been given her due. I think it’s important to read and discuss her and to honor her legacy.
Q. During her lifetime, Fuller was quite well known and was called the “radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalist circle by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Why do you think her reputation declined to the point where she is now referred to as “the forgotten Transcendentalist” and even “America’s forgotten leading lady?”
A. Fuller’s life was cut short tragically at age 40. It’s incredible to think what accomplishments her future may have held, especially if the manuscript that drowned with her had been published, and if she’d lived to continue her work in the burgeoning women’s rights and abolition movements. Without the power of her own voice and without a significant publication to her credit, the train of history moved on without her. She became a footnote.
Q. Is there a particularly fun or surprising fact you discovered about Margaret Fuller in your research?
A. I loved learning that Fuller was Nathaniel Hawthorne’s inspiration for Hester Prynne in “The Scarlet Letter.” [Fuller was] so recognizable that his wife took to her bed after reading the book.
Q. Tell us about doing research in Concord.
A. I honestly think if I could choose a place to live, it would be Concord. I loved researching Fuller’s time there, at Emerson’s house, Louisa May Alcott’s House, Walden Pond, the Sleepy Hollow cemetery . ... Concord is historically significant, full of beautiful natural scenery, and also lively and contemporary.
Q. Now that “Finding Margaret Fuller” is published, have you set your sights on a new “leading lady?”
A. Yes, I have. It’s Evelyn Nesbit, the infamous early-20th-century “It Girl,” a model and actress who was at the center of a scandal that became the first “Crime of the Century.”
Allison Pataki with Greer Macallister, Saturday, 3 p.m. An Unlikely Story, 111 South St., Plainville. anunlikelystory.com/pataki