Episode Description:
Join the PBS Books Readers Club as we chat with New York Times bestselling author Allison Pataki about her latest book “Finding Margaret Fuller.” In this virtual discussion we’ll dive into this fascinating historical fiction read about the adventures of Margaret Fuller, a renowned writer, journalist, and trailblazing women’s rights advocate whose story has too often gone untold. This work is a book-lovers dream, telling the story of Fuller’s thrilling adventures and relationships with notable literary figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thorough, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe. Pataki’s captivating storytelling will transport you back in time to the 19th century, where Fuller’s intellect and passion for social change made her a force to be reckoned with. So, grab a cup of tea, cozy up in your favorite reading nook, and get ready to embark on a literary journey with Allison Pataki and the PBS Books Readers Club. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to connect with fellow book lovers and learn more about one of history’s most inspiring women.
About the Book:
DONATE NOW and download your e-book copy.
In 1836, when young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated “Sage of Concord,” to stay in Concord, MA, she finds her intellectual equals among his coterie of enlightened friends. She becomes a role model to young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character of Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures into the woods of Walden Pond…and a muse to Emerson himself. But as love triangles and interpersonal drama threaten her ambitions, Margaret finds her restless soul in need of new challenges and adventure and decides she must venture into the broader world.
And so she charts a singular course against a backdrop of dizzying historical drama: From Boston, where she hosts a women-only literary salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton; to Harvard’s campus, where she is the first woman permitted to study within its walls; to her role as the first female foreign news correspondent, mingling with luminaries like Frederic Chopin; and to Rome where she finds a world of passion, romance, and revolution, taking a Roman count as a lover amid a revolution that would result in Italy’s unification.
With a star-studded cast and epic sweep of historical events, this is a story of an inspiring trailblazer, a woman who loved big and lived even bigger—a fierce adventurer who transcended the rigid roles ascribed to women, and changed history for millions, all on her own terms.
Guest Biography:
Allison Pataki
Allison Pataki is the New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor’s Wife, The Accidental Empress, Sisi, The Queen’s Fortune, and The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post. She is also the author of the nonfiction memoir Beauty in the Broken Places and the children’s books, Nelly Takes New York and Poppy Takes Paris. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages around the world; she has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, Good Day New York, and MSNBC’s Morning Joe among other outlets.
She has several screenplay adaptations of her novels currently in development for film and television. Pataki graduated cum laude from Yale University and is a former news writer and producer, having written for The New York Times, USA Today, and other outlets. A member of The Historical Novel Society and a certified Yoga instructor, she lives in New York with her husband and family.
Readers Club Hosts:
