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Margaret Fuller's 'The Great Lawsuit' in The Dial

When
1843
Where
The Dial (periodical)
Episodes
1

Margaret Fuller's essay 'The Great Lawsuit' appeared in The Dial in July 1843. Fuller, the journal's first editor, published the work in serial form during her tenure. The essay addressed gender equality and later expanded into a book. The Dial served as a platform for women's voices, though its subscription base was limited.

Episodes

  1. July 1843 · The Dial (periodical)Publication of 'The Great Lawsuit'

    Margaret Fuller published 'The Great Lawsuit' in The Dial in July 1843. The essay addressed gender equality and was written during a trip to Chicago.

Background and detail

Background. The Dial was the chief publication of the Transcendentalists from 1840 to 1844. Margaret Fuller served as its first full-time editor from 1840 to 1842. The journal faced financial difficulties in 1843, with income not covering printing costs and subscriptions totaling just over two hundred. Fuller intended to answer the 'great questions' facing women.

Publication. Fuller wrote 'The Great Lawsuit' during a trip to Chicago in 1843, possibly inspired by Sophia Ripley. The essay was published in serial form in The Dial in July 1843. It was originally titled 'Man versus Men, Woman versus Women'. The Dial served as a gateway to Fuller's ideas about gender equality.

Legacy. The essay established Fuller's legacy as a key figure in American Transcendentalism. It was later expanded and republished as a book in 1845. The work is considered the first major feminist work in the United States. Fuller's contribution shaped the journal's identity.

People involved

Sources

  1. Woman in the Nineteenth Century Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-30
  2. The Dial Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05
  3. Margaret Fuller Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.