While Elizabeth Palmer Peabody's written works have not been as well known as those of others in the Transcendentalist circle, no history of Transcendentalism can fail to recognize her as a presence. A member of the Hedge Club, she was an active, influential figure within the movement, with ties of acquaintance with all and of friendship with many. Valued for her inquiring mind and stimulating conversation, she served as a facilitator and intermediator par excellence--effecting meetings between individuals such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, or Emerson and Jones Very, and bringing out of his self-imposed solitude then- anonymous Salem writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her intellectual and practical entrepreneurship placed her in contact with many persons and events central to Transcendentalism. She served approximately nine years as volunteer secretary to William Ellery Channing--often referred to as the "spiritual father of Transcendentalism." After more than a decade of teaching...