Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American writer, lecturer,
and social activist. Gilman
didnt call herself a "feminist"- her goal as a humanist was to campaign
for the cause of women's suffrage. Gilman was born on July 3rd 1960
in Hartford, Connecticut; she was the youngest daughter of Frederick Beecher
Perkins, a librarian and writer, and Mary Perkins. In 1878 Gilman attended the Rhode Island
School of Design).
Charlotte
Gilman married an artist named Charles Walter Stetson in 1858, and had a
daughter named Katharine Beecher Stetson in 1885. After Gilman gave birth she fell victim of
depression, and had a nervous breakdown that affected her for several
years. In 1887 Gilman attended a
sanitorium in Philadelphia by a Doctor named Silas Wier Mitchell, he is
actually the Doctor mentioned in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. She was treated with the ‘resting cure’. In 1888 she separated from her husband, and
also became involved with social reform and feminist groups. After
her divorce she published her fictional story “The
Yellow Wallpaper” based on her experience with her depression. She still remained close to her ex-husband
who married her best friend; and she was criticized for giving up her daughter
to him. She later married on June 11,
1900 to her cousin George Houghton Gilman, who supported and encouraged her feminist
endeavors.
In
1934, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s husband died, and the next year she was diagnosed
with breast cancer. On August 17, 1935,
Gilman decided to take her own life, she committed suicide. Even though Gilman was no longer with us, her
work still was. Some of her work
included The Later Poetry of Charlotte
Perkins Gilman, The Crux(novel), What Diantha Did(novel), and Herland.
Liukkonen, Petri. "Charlotte (Anna) Perkins Gilman." Ed. Ari
Pesonen. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr.
2012. <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gilman.htm>.
Stone, Les. N.p., 2003. Gale. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.
<http://ezp.tccd.edu:2055/servlet/GLD/hits?
Lane, Ann. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. N.p., n.d. Gale.
Web. 8 Apr. 2012.
Beekman, Mary. "Her life and work as a social scientist and
feminist." Women's Intellectual
Contributions to the Study of Mind and
Society. N.p., n.d. Web.
7Apr. 2012. <http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/gilman.html>.
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