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: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg 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

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 …

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1152 words

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

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