The Selected Letters of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism) - Hardcover

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0817316485 ISBN 13: 9780817316488

Publisher: University Alabama Press, 2009

Synopsis

Charlotte Perkins Gilman has reemerged as a major American literary figure, as evidenced by the republication of many of her stories and novels and an explosion of scholarship on her. This collection of letters, the last significant portion of Gilman’s private papers to remain unpublished, fills a crucial gap in Gilman scholarship, providing countless insights into her character through her own words. Denise D. Knight and Jennifer S. Tuttle have transcribed, edited, and contextualized the letters, taken from numerous archives and private collections, and organized them both thematically and chronologically. The Selected Letters of Charlotte Perkins Gilman makes accessible the many intricate narratives created by Gilman’s correspondences. The editors have grouped letters according to the significant events in Gilman’s life and the important people to whom she wrote, including her friends and family members. Some letters echo her social theories on political topics, while others document Gilman’s battles with her private demons, such as depression and chronic poverty. Through this careful collection and contextualization, the editors provide essential facets of Gilman’s biography that would otherwise be lost. Taken together, these letters provide valuable insights into Gilman’s personality, illuminating the dichotomy between her strong, rational public persona and her vulnerable private side.

About this title

About the Author:

Denise D. Knight is Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the State University of New York at Cortland.Jennifer S. Tuttle is Dorothy M. Healy Chair and Associate Professor of English at the University of New England.

From The Washington Post:

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle Charlotte Perkins Gilman may be remembered for only one thing, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" (1892), her brilliant story of repression and madness. But boy, is she remembered for it. Generation after generation, editors include the story in anthologies of ghost stories, collections of feminist writings and plain old treasure-troves of good writing: Its next appearance, in fact, is just around the corner, in the Library of America's two-volume "American Fantastic Tales," coming out this fall. Now, in "The Selected Letters of Charlotte Perkins Gilman," readers can get to know the mercurial Gilman more intimately. Born in 1860 in Hartford, Conn., Gilman, according to the editors, was "raised in genteel poverty by an emotionally distant mother (her father left the family during her youth)." Her way of coping was to "cultivate a decidedly independent spirit that masked her private pain." Gilman went on to divorce her first husband in an age when that maneuver was subject to marked criticism, suffered a nervous breakdown, seems to have had a passionate relationship with a woman and eventually carried out her belief in euthanasia (she was suffering from cancer). But early in her career, awaiting the publication of her incomparable tale, she let out this burst of enthusiasm in a letter to her passionate friend: "When my awful story, 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' comes out, you must try & read it. Walter say he has read it four times, and thinks it the most ghastly tale he ever read. Says it beats Poe! . . . But that's only a husband's opinion."
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0817316485
• ISBN 13: 9780817316488
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 504
• Editor: Knight Denise D., Tuttle Jennifer S.