1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910811101003321

Autore

Davis Cynthia J. <1964->

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, CA, : Stanford University Press, c2010

ISBN

0-8047-7419-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (567 p.)

Disciplina

818/.409

B

Soggetti

Women authors, American - 19th century

Women authors, American - 20th century

Feminists - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.