Fiction is a fun introduction to history! Allison Pataki encourages her readers to visit Concord, where her novel is predominately set—to tour the Emerson House, The Old Manse, and Orchard House—as she did while writing. Indeed, shortly after Finding Margaret Fuller: a novel’s publication (Ballentine Books, 2024), book clubs scheduled group tours at Emerson’s home.
It was nearly twelve hours since the Elizabeth ran aground on a sandbar in a raging hurricane. Returning home from Italy in July 1850, after years abroad as a foreign correspondent, Margaret Fuller huddled before the ship’s mast, clutching her two-year-old son, as waves violently washed over the deck. Fuller had given her life preserver to a sailor, who swam to shore for help.
