Charlotte Perkins Gilman : a biography / Cynthia J. Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Cynthia J., 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins.

Women authors, American--19th century--Biography.

Women authors, American.

Women authors, American--20th century--Biography.

Feminists--United States--Biography.

Feminists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (567 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman offers the definitive account of this controversial writer and activist's long and eventful life. Charlotte Anna Perkins Stetson Gilman (1860–1935) launched her career as a lecturer, author, and reformer with the story for which she is best-known today, "The Yellow Wallpaper." She was hailed as the "brains" of the US women's movement, whose focus she sought to broaden from suffrage to economics. Her most influential sociological work criticized the competitive individualism of capitalists and Social Darwinists, and touted altruistic service as the prerequisite to both social progress and human evolution. By 1900, Gilman had become an international celebrity, but had already faced a scandal over her divorce and "abandonment" of her child. As the years passed, her audience shrunk and grew more hostile, and she increasingly positioned herself in opposition to the society that in an earlier, more idealistic period she had seen as the better part of the self. In her final years, she unflinchingly faced breast cancer, her second husband's sudden death, and finally, her own carefully planned suicide— she "preferred chloroform to cancer" and cared little for a single life when its usefulness was over. Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents new insights into the life of a remarkable woman whose public solutions often belied her private anxieties. It aims to recapture the drama and complexity of Gilman's life while presenting a comprehensive scholarly portrait.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Introduction

Acknowledgments

1. “Beginnings”

2. “I’m Not Domestic and Don’t Want to Be”

3. “I Am Not the Combining Sort”

4. “A Life with No Beyond!”

5. “Begin New”

6. “The Duty Farthest”

7. “A Woman-at-Large”

8. “Living and Loving”

9. “A Cleared Path”

10. “Readjustment”

11. “The Forerunner”

12. “Begin Again”

13. “A Returned Exile”

14. “The Stepping Off Place”

Abbreviations

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804774192

0804774196

OCLC:

638861383