Sarah Margaret Fuller was born in Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Massachusetts, in 1810. Her childhood was dominated by her father, Timothy Fuller, who gave her a rigorous education in literature and philosophy at home. Influenced by such German Romantic writers as Johann Goethe, she embraced the belief that God was found in both man and nature and that each individual was responsible for his or her own moral advancement. After the death of her father in 1835 she began teaching, first in Providence, Rhode Island, and then at an experimental Boston school conducted by Bronson Alcott, an important figure in the Transcendentalist movement. Fuller became a close friend and creative ally of other Transcendentalists, most notably Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her brilliance and energy won her many admirers in Boston’s intellectual circles, though others found her arrogant and domineering. Her eloquence as a speaker led her to conduct a series of so-called Conversations held around the Boston area. These were actually courses in philosophy and aesthetics, primarily for women, that attracted a devoted following.