The Giant Wistaria

About Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was an American feminist, author, and social critic who wrote several novels, over two hundred short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Gilman spent much of her youth in Providence, Rhode Island, and was frequently in the presence of her father's family, which included Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the famous suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker. From 1909 to 1916, Gilman wrote and edited her own magazine, the Forerunner, in which much of her fiction appeared. Her large body of work, which examines the economic and social position of women in society, includes the semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the feminist utopian novel Herland, the poetry volume In This World, the nonfiction work Women and Economics, and her posthumously published autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.