Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Denise Knight (SUNY, Cortland)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 3 Jul 1860
Died 17 Aug 1935
Activity 1888-1935

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

Feminist

Activities

Primary

Autobiographer
Essayist
Journalist
Letter-writer/ Diarist
Novelist
Poet
Polemicist
Satirist
Story-writer

Resources

Gilman's Works

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The great-niece of American author and abolitionist advocate Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charlotte Anna Perkins [Gilman] was born in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. Despite the affluence of her famous ancestors, Gilman was born into poverty. Her father abandoned the family when Gilman was a small child, and her mother, nearly destitute, was forced to move with Charlotte and her brother nineteen times in eighteen years. They eventually settled in Providence, Rhode Island. As a result, Gilman received just four years of formal education. Nevertheless, she eked out a small living in her late teens by teaching drawing and painting and by designing artistically innovative advertising cards for the Kendall Manufacturing Company in Providence. She vowed never to marry, intending instead to remain…

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1152 words

Citation: Knight, Denise. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1751, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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