Margaret Fuller is recognized as one of the key social and literary figures in 19th century America - as prominent a woman in intellectual circles as there was in her period, which ended with her death in 1850. Capper is writing a full biography in two volumes that will reveal Fuller's personality and place her in the historical context of her time.

The Private Years deals with Fuller's childhood and education, her time as a schoolteacher, and her involvement with the Transcendentalists, particularly the story of her close and difficult relationship with the movement's leader, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It ends in 1840, when her public career began.