Both The Chevalier of Pensieri–Vani (1890) and The Châtelaine of La Trinité (1892) bear some thematic resemblance to the works of Henry James, whose primary interest was in the contrast between American and European ways of life.

Fuller then turned to literary realism, writing The Cliff-Dwellers (1893), what is perhaps the first novel set among the skyscrapers and frenetic business culture of modern-day Chicago.

The scion of one of Chicago's early settler families, he found the increasingly industrial and multicultural nature of the city offputting.

At the age of nineteen, he wrote in an imaginary personal advertisement: "I would pass by twenty beautiful women to look upon a handsome man".

Five years later, Fuller wrote and published a short play, At Saint Judas's, about a homosexual who commits suicide at the wedding of his former lover.

[citation needed] In 1924 Fuller embarked upon the last of his many European tours with William Emery Shepherd, a 24-year-old college student.

The trip exhausted Fuller, who continued writing literary reviews for a variety of newspapers and magazines upon his return to Chicago, as well as a novel that was published posthumously.

[5] He was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2017,[1] which also created the "Fuller Award", honoring "lifetime contributions to literature".