Charlotte Perkins Gilman's in This Our World and Uncollected Poems - by Gary Scharnhorst & Denise D Knight (Hardcover)

About the Book

Brings together Charlotte Perkins Gilman's first collection of poetry alongside 79 previously uncollected verses.

Book Synopsis

Prominent American author, lecturer, and social reformer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is best known for her 1898 treatise Women and Economics, which ascribed gender inequality to women's economic dependence upon men, and for her 1892 short story "The Yellow Wall-Paper," which depicts a woman's descent into madness. However, she began her career as a poet. Her first authored book, a collection of verse entitled In This Our World, was issued in four different editions between 1893 and 1898. While virtually all of Gilman's later poems appeared in her monthly magazine, The Forerunner (1909-16), or in The Later Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1996), Gilman's early verse has been largely inaccessible to modern readers, and dozens of her poems have never been collected. This volume, coedited by Scharnhorst and Knight, includes all 149 poems in the 1898 edition of In This Our World as well as 112 vagrant poems that appeared in a variety of newspapers and magazines. This critical volume features a comprehensive introduction and extensive notes. Gilman devotees and a new generation of readers will find this edition an indispensable resource.

Review Quotes

A welcome addition to the growing list of recovered works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. [The volume] illuminates Gilman's craft and the evolution of her philosophy over time.-- "Jennifer S. Tuttle, University of New England"

This sorely needed, eagerly anticipated volume showcases Charlotte Perkins Gilman's numerous early poems. Expert archivists and textual editors Gary Scharnhorst and Denise D. Knight have recovered from out-of-print or otherwise obscure sources the poems through which Gilman launched her literary career. A concise yet comprehensive introduction situates the poems in Gilman's life and times, reveals their influence upon her peers, and demonstrates their importance to her reputation and thought. . . . A major scholarly contribution and an absorbing read.-- "Cynthia J. Davis, author of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography"

About the Author

Gary Scharnhorst is Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of New Mexico. He has published biographies on Horatio Alger Jr., Bret Harte, Kate Field, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Denise D. Knight is Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the State University of New York at Cortland. She is the author of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction and coeditor of The Selected Letters of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.