These two seemingly contrasting women writers—the 19th century activist and scintillating conversationalist Margaret Fuller, and the shy 20th century poet Elizabeth Bishop, whose eloquence was confined to the printed page—actually have a great deal in common. Most often associated with urban centers or watery coastlines, both writers had formative experiences in inland Massachusetts towns, Groton and Worcester. Both struggled with questions of identity and purpose from childhood, recording moments when realizing that “you are an Elizabeth,” or asking “How is that I seem to be this Margaret Fuller?” struck them like thunderbolts. Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Megan Marshall will illuminate these and other surprising congruities as well as outline the important contributions each woman made to her (and our) world with her work.

Megan Marshall is the author of three biographies: The Peabody Sisters, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography; Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Biography and the Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction; and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast, a finalist for the Christian Gauss Award in Literary Criticism of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She is the Charles Wesley Emerson College Professor at Emerson College, a past president of the Society of American Historians, and the recipient of the 2022 BIO (Biographers International Organization) Award for “contributions to the advancement of the art and craft of biography” as well as the 2022 Walter G. Harding Distinguished Service Award for “scholarly achievement that furthers the mission of the Henry David Thoreau Society.”   (author website)

This program is free and open to the public thanks to the Groton Commissioners of Trust Funds

Event held at the Groton Center. 

Presented in partnership with the Groton Historical Society and the Groton Center.