Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Biography

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in mid-nineteenth century on July 3^rd, 1860. Gilman had strong feminist influences early on for she came from a family well known for their opinions on women’s suffrage. Her great aunts, whom she would often spend time with, included Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She was raised mostly by her mother for at the young age of nine Gilman’s father, Fredrick Perkins, left his family. Charlotte, her mother, and her brother Thomas were forced to move many times during her childhood and into her late teenage years. This forced Gilman to enter the work force to help support her impoverished family.

In 1884, Charlotte married Charles Walter Stetson and fell into depression soon after. After the birth of her first child, Katharine, Gilman’s depression worsened to the point that she sought professional help. Her prolonged stay at an institution with the popular treatment known as the “rest cure,” as well as being told to never write again, was inspiration for Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman published this story after she divorced Stetson in 1892, and the short story was very successful amongst the women’s suffrage groups.

Katharine was left with her father and his new wife, who was Gilman’s best friend. Charlotte was criticized by the media due to the fact that they believed she had abandoned her child. Nevertheless, Gilman continued to write despite the guilt that she felt for her decision even though she technically did not abandon Katharine. She focused on her career as a writer and eventually fell in love with her first cousin, George Houghton Gilman. He was very supportive of her writings and they were married in June of 1900.

Gilman published many works after the marriage, including the start of her magazine The Forerunner, a few novels including Herland in 1915, as well as her autobiography The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which was not published until after her death.

George died in 1934 leaving Gilman with incurable breast cancer. In 1935, Gilman took her own life explaining in a note that one had the right to choose “a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”

Works Cited

"Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860-1935." Http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu. N.p., 1998. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. <http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/cgilman.html>.

Beekman, Mary. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935): Her Life and Work as a Social Scientist and Feminist." Http://www.webster.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. <http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/gilman.html>.

Fox, Jeanna. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935): A Brief Biography."Http://lead.csustan.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. <http://lead.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/gilman.html>.