Charlotte Perkins Gilman


Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman(1860-1935) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman

 

"The glory of our race is its power of communication. We share our strength and knowledge and rise as one; we share our failure and weakness and help each other bear it."

 

Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman is best known for her short storyThe Yellow Wallpaper. Gilman not only wrote novels but also was a poet, journalist, mother and wife. In 1909 she founded, edited and wrote the Forerunner. It was a feminist magazine that had about 1,500 subscribers. Within the Forerunner she published "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper" to explain to everyone the horrors of the Rest Cure. In 1887 Gilman, after the birth of her first child, was under Silas Weir Mitchell's "Rest Cure" (http://americanliterature.pbwiki.com/Rest%20Cure ) . However, it only drove her towards insanity instead of removing her from it. Gilman was a writer for and by the women. Her many works highlighted the strength and power of women. She died at her own hands on August 17, 1935 by overdose of chloroform, only three years after being diagnosed with incurable breast cancer. Through her writings, she will be remembered as a woman who spoke out on behalf of all women of all ages.

 

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