Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)
Author of The Yellow Wallpaper - story
About the Author
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860 in Hartford, Conn. Her traumatic childhood led to depression and to her eventual suicide. Gilman's father abandoned the family when she was a child and her mother, who was not an affectionate woman, recruited relatives to help raise her children. Among show more these relatives was Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Due to her family situation, Gilman learned independence, but also became alienated from her many female relatives. Gilman married in 1884 and was soon diagnosed with depression. She was prescribed bed rest, which only seemed to aggravate her condition and she eventually divorced her husband, fearing that marriage was partly responsible for her depressed state. After this, Gilman became involved in feminist activities and the writing that made her a major figure in the women's movement. Books such as Women and Economics, written in 1898, are proof of her importance as a feminist. Here she states that only when women learn to be economically independent can true equality be achieved. Her fiction works, particularly The Yellow Wallpaper, are also written with feminist ideals. A frequent lecturer, she also founded the feminist magazine Forerunner in 1909. Gilman, suffering from cancer, chose to end her own life and committed suicide on August 17, 1935. More information about this fascinating figure can be found in her book The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography, published in 1935. (Bowker Author Biography) Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860 in Hartford, Conn. Her traumatic childhood led to depression and to her eventual suicide. Gilman's father abandoned the family when she was a child and her mother, who was not an affectionate woman, recruited relatives to help raise her children. Among these relatives was Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Due to her family situation, Gilman learned independence, but also became alienated from her many female relatives. Gilman married in 1884 and was soon diagnosed with depression. She was prescribed bed rest, which only seemed to aggravate her condition and she eventually divorced her husband, fearing that marriage was partly responsible for her depressed state. After this, Gilman became involved in feminist activities and the writing that made her a major figure in the women's movement. Books such as Women and Economics, written in 1898, are proof of her importance as a feminist. Here she states that only when women learn to be economically independent can true equality be achieved. Her fiction works, particularly The Yellow Wallpaper, are also written with feminist ideals. A frequent lecturer, she also founded the feminist magazine Forerunner in 1909. Gilman, suffering from cancer, chose to end her own life and committed suicide on August 17, 1935. More information about this fascinating figure can be found in her book The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography, published in 1935. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: From Wikipedia
Series
Works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the History of Its Publication and Reception: A Critical Edition… (1990) 26 copies
"The Yellow Wall-Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Dual-Textbook Critical Edition (2006) 14 copies
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper: A Sourcebook and Critical Edition (1977) 13 copies
Delphi Complete Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman US (Illustrated) (Series Six Book 1) (2015) 8 copies
The Dress of Women: A Critical Introduction to the Symbolism and Sociology of Clothing (2001) 6 copies
Charlotte Perkins Gilman Collection Volume I (Illustrated): The Yellow Wallpaper, Herland and The Man-Made World (2014) 4 copies
Collected Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Short Stories, Novels, Poems and Essays (2015) 2 copies
The Collected Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper, Women and Economics, Herland, Suffrage Songs and… (2015) 2 copies
Herland and Other Works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics) (2010) 2 copies
The yellow wallpaper = El papel de pared amarillo ; According to Solomon = Según Salomón (2014) 2 copies
Making a Living 2 copies
Mag-Marjorie & Won Over: Two Novels (Ironweed American Classics) (Ironweed American Classics) (1999) 2 copies
The Giant Wistaria 2 copies
Dr. Clair's Place 2 copies
The yellow wallpaper 1 copy
Martha's Mother 1 copy
Her Houskeeper 1 copy
Tales of Terror: The Monkey's Paw, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Cone, The Yellow Wallpaper (2014) 1 copy
Three Thanksgivings 1 copy
My Poor Aunt 1 copy
The Unexpected 1 copy
Herland Illustrated 1 copy
世界恐怖小說選 卷二: 曲折詭異的世界名家名作 1 copy
W.S. Maugham - La moglie del Colonnello | Charlotte Perkins Gilman - La carta da parati gialla — Author — 1 copy
Mrs. Beazley's Deeds 1 copy
Joan's Defender 1 copy
Spoken To 1 copy
Her Beauty 1 copy
Mrs. Elder's Idea 1 copy
A Mischievous Rudiment 1 copy
Collected Stories 1 copy
The Forerunner 1 copy
The Collected Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Complete Works PergamonMedia (Highlights of World Literature) (2015) 1 copy
Turned 1 copy
Suffrage Songs and Verses - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (ANNOTATED) [Second Edition] [Full Version] (2018) 1 copy
A Collection of Poems by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (In This Our World, Suffrage Songs and Verses) (2019) 1 copy
The New England magazine 1 copy
'The Yellow Wallpaper'; with 'Woman', Gilman's acclaimed feminist poetry (Aziloth Books) (2015) 1 copy
Complete Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman "American feminist, sociologist, and novelist"! 9 Complete Works (The Yellow… (2017) 1 copy
La carta gialla 1 copy
Old Mrs. Crosley 1 copy
The Boys and the Butter 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy
Associated Works
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps (2009) — Contributor — 265 copies
Four Stories by American Women: Rebecca Harding Davis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah OrneJewett, Edith Wharton… (1990) — Contributor — 125 copies
Writing Women's Lives: An Anthology of Autobiographical Narratives by Twentieth-Century American Women Writers (1994) — Contributor — 121 copies
In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Horror, 1816-1914 (2015) — Contributor — 91 copies
H.P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural: 19 Classics of the Macabre, Chosen by the Master of Horror Himself (2006) — Contributor — 88 copies
The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present (2020) — Contributor — 83 copies
Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923 (2020) — Contributor — 83 copies
Women's Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940 (Handheld Classics) (2019) — Contributor — 69 copies
There is a Graveyard That Dwells in Man: More Strange Fiction and Hallucinatory Tales (2020) — Contributor — 43 copies
The Lifted Veil: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Women 1800-World War II (1806) — Contributor — 42 copies
Ladies of Horror: Two Centuries of Supernatural Stories by the Gentle Sex (1971) — Contributor — 24 copies
The Red Velvet Seat: Women's Writings on the Cinema: The First Fifty Years (2006) — Contributor — 20 copies
Roads of Destiny: And Other Tales of Alternative Histories and Parallel Realms: 43 (British Library Tales of the Weird) (2023) — Contributor — 8 copies
La nueva mujer: Relatos de escritoras estadounidenses del siglo XIX — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Gilman, Charlotte Anna Perkins
- Other names
- Stetson, Charlotte Perkins
- Birthdate
- 1860-07-03
- Date of death
- 1935-08-17
- Burial location
- cremated
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Hartford, Connecticut, USA
- Place of death
- Pasedena, California, USA
- Cause of death
- suicide
- Places of residence
- Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Pasadena, California, USA
New York, New York, USA
Norwich, Connecticut, USA - Education
- Rhode Island School of Design
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer
social reformer
magazine editor
public speaker
economist (show all 8)
women's rights activist
suffragist - Relationships
- Stowe, Harriet Beecher (great-aunt)
Beecher, Catharine (great-aunt)
Hooker, Isabella Beecher (great-aunt) - Short biography
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Frederick Beecher Perkins and his wife Mary Fitch Westcott.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catharine Beecher, and Isabella Beecher Hooker, three of the most distinguished 19th-century American writers and women's advocates were her great-aunts of whom she was very proud. Charlotte herself became a noted writer, public speaker, economist, and women's rights and suffrage activist. In 1884, at the age of 24, she married Charles Walter Stetson, an aspiring artist, and the following year gave birth to their daughter. Shortly after the birth, Charlotte suffered a serious bout of what today would be diagnosed as post-partum depression. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," published in 1892. She also wrote a famous treatise, Women and Economics (1898), in which she said women could never be truly independent until they first had economic freedom. This theme was explored through her lectures, her more than 1,000 nonfiction publications, and her fiction. In 1900, Gilman remarried to her first cousin, George Houghton Gilman. Over the next 25 years, Charlotte also ran her own magazine, The Forerunner, in which many of her stories appeared. An advocate of euthanasia, Gilman ended her life at the age of 75 with an overdose of chloroform. Her work fell into obscurity until it was revived by the women’s movement in the 1960s. In 1994, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.
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Discussions
Woman goes mad and constantly walks around a room, leaving a groove in the wallpaper in Name that Book (April 2012)
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Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 138
- Also by
- 76
- Members
- 12,609
- Popularity
- #1,855
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 354
- ISBNs
- 761
- Languages
- 18
- Favorited
- 21