In researching and writing my book on Giuseppe and Anita Garibaldi and the unification of Italy (A Man Of Action Saving Liberty: A Novel Based On The Life Of Giuseppe Garibaldi) I re-discovered the first American female war correspondent – Margaret Fuller — who I had first met in a college course on the Transcendentalists. I was once again fascinated by a life lived purposefully.
Then I found Tammy Rose’s podcast on the Transcendentalists – Concord Days – and was delighted when she asked me to guest for a discussion of Fuller’s work in Italy as both a journalist – and a nurse. — Rosanne
![23 Why Return to the US? from Concord Days: Margaret Fuller in Italy [Video]](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/rmw-concord-day-2021-fuller-rome-23.jpg)
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Concord Days sends love to Margaret Fuller on the anniversary of her death in 1850.
The conversation focuses on Margaret’s exciting days in ITALY!
Dr. Rosanne Welch takes us through her adventures and enthusiastically reminds us what she was like when she was living her best life!
Transcript:
Tammy: So here’s a question that I’m never really sure. Were they were coming for a visit or were they coming to move permanently or was it sort of…
Rosanne: I believe the idea was they were going to move permanently because she could do more work there and she wanted to publish the book and it had to be published in the United States. So even if — yeah maybe not permanent the wrong way to say it — it was going to be a period of time so that piece could be done and the kind of — she knew that the United States needed to come and support what was happening in Italy as well. So I think it’s twofold. Her career is gonna move forward with this and he’s thinking he’s gonna help get the kind of support because Garibaldi lived in the states for a little bit too after one of his failures. So he knew that if you got people there on your side you would have the support you needed. So they had business reasons, as well as I’m sure she kind of wanted to show off her kid to her friends, because as you said earlier, that wasn’t part of her planned life story and when I was a kid I was never going to have kids because I thought that’s not something I want to do and then Ii changed my mind at 32 because a writer friend of mine actually said if you want to be a writer and you want all the experiences that a writer can have, you’re turning down an experience that only half the planet can have and it was it a conversation which again makes me think about Margaret talking to these women. What are the possibilities in your life and what have you told yourself you should or shouldn’t do based on what society will say about you and I did think having a kid would get in the way of having a career and then I realized no because you could do it your way and Margaret did right I think in that moment, in those periods in her life, she was really happy and I think that was you know the other reason she wanted to come back and show everybody, look I did it all.
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