Charlotte Perkins Gilman (née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known as Charlotte Perkins Stetson, her first married name, was a prominent American humanist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform.
She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.
She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis.
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Original advertisements for work by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (text only)
BOOKS BY CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN
MOVING THE MOUNTAIN
"A Utopia at short range. How we might change this country in thirty years, if we changed our minds first. Mrs. Gilman's latest book, like her earliest verse, is a protest against the parrot cry that "you can't alter human nature."
WHAT DIANATHA DID
"What she did was to solve the domestic service problem for both mistress and maid in a southern California town." - "The Survey"
"A sensible book, it gives a new and deserved comprehension of the importance and complexity of housekeeping." - "The Independent"
"Mrs. Perkins Gilman is as full of ideas as ever, and her Diantha is a model for all young women."
- "The Englishwoman"
THE MAN-MADE WORLD
"We defy any thoughtful person to read this book of Mrs. Gilman, and not be moved to or towards conviction, whether he acknowledges it or not." - "San Francisco Star"
"Mrs. Gilman has presented in this work the results of her thought, study, and observation of the much debated question of the relation of man to woman and of woman to man. The subject is developed with much wise argument and wholesome sense of humor." - "The Craftsman"
"Mrs. Gilman has applied her theory with much cleverness, consistency and logical thinking."
- "Chicago Evening Post"
IN THIS OUR WORLD
"There is a joyous superabundance of life, of strength, of health, in Mrs. Gilman's verse, which seems born of the glorious sunshine and rich gardens of California."
- "Washington Times"
"The freshness, charm and geniality of her satire temporarily convert us to her most advanced views."
- "Boston Journal"
"The poet of women and for women, a new and prophetic voice in the world. Montaigne would have rejoiced in her." - "Mexican Herald"
THE HOME
"Indeed, Mrs. Gilman has not intended her book so much as a treatise for scholars as a surgical operation on the popular mind." - "The Critic, New York"
"Whatever Mrs. Gilman writes, people read—approving or protesting, still they read." - "Republican, Springfield, Mass"
"Full of thought and of new and striking suggestions. Tells what the average woman has and ought not keep, what she is and ought not be." - "Literature World"
But it is safe to say that no more stimulating arraignment has ever before taken shape and that the argument of the book is noble, and, on the whole, convincing. - "Congregationalist, Boston"
The name of this author is a guarantee of logical reasoning, sound economical principles and progressive thought. - "The Craftsman, Syracuse"
WOMEN AND ECONOMICS
"Since John Stuart Mill's essay there has been no book dealing with the whole position of women to approach it in originality of conception and brilliancy of exposition."
- "London Chronicle"
"The most significant utterance on the subject since Mill's Subjection of Women." - "The Nation"
"It is the strongest book on the woman question that has yet been published." - "Minneapolis Journal"
"A remarkable book. A work on economics that has not a dull page,—the work of a woman about women that has not a flippant word." - "Boston Transcript"
"This book unites in a remarkable degree the charm of a brilliantly written essay with the inevitable logic of a proposition of Euclid. Nothing that we have read for many a long day can approach in clearness of conception, in power of arrangement, and in lucidity of expression the argument developed in the first seven chapters of this remarkable book." - "Westminster Gazette, London"
"Will be widely read and discussed as the cleverest, fairest, most forcible presentation of the view of the rapidly increasing group who look with favor on the extension of industrial employment to women."
- "Political Science Quarterly"
CONCERNING CHILDREN
"WANTED:—A philanthropist, to give a copy to every English-speaking parent." - "The Times, New York"
"Should be read by every mother in the land."
- "The Press, New York"
"Wholesomely disturbing book that deserves to be read for its own sake." - "Chicago Dial"
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
"Worthy of a place beside some of the weird masterpieces of Hawthorne and Poe." - "Literature"
"As a short story it stands among the most powerful produced in America." - "Chicago News"
HUMAN WORK
"Charlotte Perkins Gilman has added a third to her great trilogy of books on economic subjects as they affect our daily life, particularly in the home. Mrs. Gilman is by far the most brilliant woman writer of our day, and this new volume, which she calls "Human Work," is a glorification of labor." - "New Orleans Picayune"
"Charlotte Perkins Gilman has been writing a new book, entitled "Human Work." It is the best thing that Mrs. Gilman has done, and it is meant to focus all of her previous work, so to speak." - "Tribune, Chicago"
"In her latest volume, Human Work, Charlotte Perkins Gilman places herself among the foremost students and elucidators of the problem of social economics."
- "San Francisco Star"
"It is impossible to overestimate the value of the insistence on the social aspect of human affairs as Mrs. Gilman has outlined it." - "Public Opinion"
THE FORERUNNER
A monthly magazine, written,
edited, owned and published
by
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN
67 Wall Street, New York City
U. S. A.
"This magazine carries Mrs. Gilman's best and newest work, her social philosophy, verse, satire, fiction, ethical teaching, humor and opinion.
It stands for Humanness in Women and Men; for better methods in Child Culture; for the New Ethics, the better Economics—the New World we are to make, are making. The breadth of Mrs. Gilman's thought and her power of expressing it have made her well-known in America and Europe as a leader along lines of human improvement and a champion of woman.
THE FORERUNNER voices her thought and its messages are not only many, but strong, true and vital."