Sarah Margaret Fuller, who was born at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts on this date in 1810, was a journalist and the author of the first book on feminism by an American writer. She began reading Virgil (in Latin) at age six and Shakespeare at age eight. Her conversational powers won her the admiration of most students at nearby Harvard, and, though she left town at age 23, she still communicated with the Boston intellectual community. In 1839, she returned to Boston and held "conversation classes," designed to emancipate women from their traditional intellectual subservience to men. She shared editorial duties with Ralph Waldo Emerson in the Transcendentalist quarterly, The Dial, after a move to New York in 1844. Horace Greeley hired Miss Fuller as literary critic for the New York Tribune. Her book, Women in the Nineteenth Century, was the first feminist statement by an American writer, and it brought her international acclaim. In 1846, she became a foreign correspondent for theTribune, became caught up in the Italian revolution, and secretly married a young Italian nobleman, the Marquis Giovanni Angelo Ossoli. She directed a hospital during a seize of Rome by the French, and after the fall of Rome, she and her husband found refuge with the English-speaking colony in Florence, but were forced to leave by Tuscan authorities. Fuller and her husband and child then set sail for the U.S. but they all perished when their ship was wrecked off Fire Island on July 19, 1850.

MODEL: Young women of the world! Learn! Read Virgil in the original Latin! Read Shakespeare! Become fascinating conversationalists! Get jobs as foreign correspondents in Italy. Marry a marquis! ***

Transmission received. If you were born on May 23, you are very good at transmitting your energy and thoughts to others. You radiate a very positive, seductive energy and have a very natural sex appeal. It's not good for you to be alone too much, since you have strong social needs. Ruled by the number 5 and the planet Mercury, you change your mind and your surroundings often.

Your mental side. Hardly a loner, you are happy to work in a group. Your mental approach complements your sensuality well. You are just as comfortable playing chess as you are dancing. Many May 23 people have inquisitive, scienti fic talents and may gravitate toward the study of transmissions of various kinds.

Help yourself. Although you don't seek conflicts, you are always up to the challenge of solving problems, especially other people's problems. You tend to ignore your own needs while looking after those of family and friends. Emotional and physical ailments can build to a breaking point, however, so don't put them off.

Parenting. You are a good parent, transmitting positive vibes and a solid education to your children as they grow. You give them lots of attention and have the energy and patience necessary for raising a child. Biological matters are important, especially to woman born on this day.

Some advice: Learn to say no to others and attend your own needs. Don't always work for the approval of others. Keep your impulsive, wacky side in check.

Also born on this day: Scatman Crothers (actor) Rennie Davis (political activist) Rosemary Clooney (singer, actress) John Newcombe (tennis champion) Franz Anton Mesmer (Austrian hypnotist) John Bardeen (Nobel Prize, transformer) Robert Moog (synthesizer inventor) Marvin Hagler (middleweight boxing champion) Joan Collins (actor) Sir Charles Barry (British architect) Thomas M. Donahue (atmospheric scientist, geophysicist) Carolus Linnaeus (Swedish botanist).