"The destiny of each human being is no doubt great and peculiar," wrote Margaret Fuller to James Nathan in May 1845, "but there are also in every age a few in whose lot the meaning of that age is concentrated. I feel that I am one of those persons in my age and sex. I feel chosen among women." Her words echo the angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary, "Blessed art thou among women." Fuller felt that she could create the universal human image, not in a book but in the example of her life. A writer by profession, Fuller always sought to transcend the merely literary in order to invent an immediate relationship with the world. Hoping to create a shared awareness of human life in its highest state, she pursued friendships with many of the most prominent writers and thinkers in antebellum America. She tried to practice the...